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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNl 

AT  LOS  angele; 


THE  GIFT  OF 

MAY  TREAT  MORRISON 

IN  MEMORY  OF 

ALEXANDER  F  MORRISON 


MEMOIRS  AND   LETTERS 


JAMES   KENT,    LL.D. 


MEMOIRS  AND  LETTERS 


OP 


JAMES    KENT,  LL.D. 

1 

Hate  CljancEllor  of  tfte  State  of  Neiu  iorft. 


AUTHOR   OF 


"COMMENTARIES  ON   AMERICAN  LAW,"  Etc. 


BY   HIS    GREAT-GRANDSON, 

WILLIAM    KENT, 

\  \ 

OF   THE    NEW   YORK   BAR. 


BOSTON: 
LITTLE,   BROWN,    AND    COMPANY. 

1898. 


Copyright,  1S98, 
By  Little,  Brown,  and  Company. 


All  rights  reserved. 


SEnibcrsitg  ^ress : 
JonN  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.S.A. 


•1 

I 

©I 

I 


^ 

^ 


TO 

MARY     KENT     STONE, 

STfjia  iScmoir  of  %n  Jatijcr, 
JAMES    KENT, 

IS  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED. 


o 


PREFACE 

ONE  of  the  peculiarities  of  letters,  as  a  form  of 
literature,  is  that  the  writer  cannot  superintend 
their  publication ;  and  the  duty  which  therefore  falls 
upon  a  literary  executor  is  complex. 

It  should  be  his  aim  to  present  to  the  reader  a 
concise,  true,  and  attractive  selection  from  the  mate- 
rial at  hand,  yet  at  the  same  time  neither  to  dwarf 
nor  magnify  his  subject  out  of  true  proportion. 

Light  and  shadow,  as  they  inevitably  come  into  the 
life  of  every  man,  are  necessary  to  give  true  perspec- 
tive, and,  as  Mr.  Froude  has  said,  "  the  sharpest  scru- 
tiny is  the  condition  of  enduring  fame." 

To  this  end  has  this  Memoir  been  written,  in  which 
there  has  been  nothing  to  hide,  nothing  to  extenuate. 

It  has  been  the  Editor's  aim  to  tell  the  simple  story 
of  the  life  of  this  painstaking,  industrious,  and  con- 
scientious student,  in  his  own  words ;  and  the  narra- 
tive is  chiefly  interesting  as  we  note  the  method  by 
which  he  became  the  embodiment  of  such  a  vast 
store  of  legal  erudition. 

The  fire  of  the  Revolution  had  burned  fiercely, 
destroying  the  traditions,  institutions,  and  usages 
which  the  colonists  had  transplanted  from  the  mother 
country. 

To  James  Kent  came  the  duty  of  reconstruction; 
and  at  this  day,  fifty  years  after  his  death,  it  can  be 


VIU 


PREFACE 


truly  said  that  it  is  due  to  his  life's  work,  more  than 
to  that  of  any  other  man,  that  the  United  States, 
from  ocean  to  ocean,  is  controlled  by  the  same  sys- 
tem of  jurisprudence,  founded  upon  those  principles 
of  law  and  equity  which  he  enunciated. 

Early  in  his  professional  career  he  grasped  the 
thought  that  he  was  free  to  reconstruct,  with  no  one 
to  controvert;  and  from  the  writings  of  the  great 
sages  and  civilians  of  antiquity,  he  enriched,  beauti- 
fied, and  enlarged  the  commercial  laws  of  his  coun- 
try, and  dignified  for  all  time  the  profession  to  which 
he  belonged. 

Much  of  the  material  for  this  Memoir  was  col- 
lected by  Judge  William  Kent  shortly  after  the  death 
of  his  father. 

It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  he  could  not  carry 
out  his  intention  to  write  a  biography;  the  failure  to 
do  which  was  largely  caused  by  the  weakening  effect 
of  disease,  which  brought  about  his  death  a  few  years 
later. 

The  assistance  of  Mr,  Edmund  J,  Carpenter,  of 
Boston,  in  preparing  this  book  for  the  press  in  its 
present  form,  is  thankfully  acknowledged,  and  the 
work  submitted  to  the  indulgence  of  the  public.  The 
frontispiece  is  from  the  portrait  by  Rembrandt  Peale, 
painted  in  1843,  and  in  the  possession  of  the  family 
at  Tuxedo  Park. 

Tuxedo,  N.  Y.,  January,  1S98. 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

I.  Kent's  Boyhood,  College  Life  at  New 
Haven,  and  Admission  to  the  Bar,  1763- 
1793 I 

11.  Early  Professional  Life  in  New  York; 
HIS  Intimacy  with  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton, AND  Professorship  at  Columbia 
College,  i  793-1804 29 

in.     The   Letters   of  John  Adams  in   relation 

TO   THE    future    CHANCELLOR'S     FiRST    LaW 

Lecture,  and  the  Beginning  of  his  Offi- 
cial Career,  1793- 1796 60 

IV.  Election  to  the  Assembly  from  New  York 
City,  and  Appointment  to  the  Office  of 
Recorder,  i  796-1 798 82 

V.  Career  upon  the  Bench  as  Judge  and 
Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
New  York,  1798-1807 108 

VI.     Reading  and  Studies,  1799-1807 139 

VII.     His  Life  as  Chancellor,  1814-1823      ...     157 

VIII.  At  the  age  of  Sixty-three  Chancellor 
Kent  begins  the  preparation  of  his 
Commentaries;  his  Correspondence  with 
Webster  and  Everett,  i 823-1 846.     .     .     .     189 


X  CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

IX.  Address  at  the  Dinner  to  Washington 
Irving,  1S32;  Notes  on  Books  and  Authors, 
1 790-1847 227 

X.     Retirement   from    Public    Life,   and    Last 

Years,  1839-1847 257 

APPENDIX.      Chancellor    Kent's    Memories    of 

Alexander  Hamilton 279 


INDEX 333 


Memoirs  of  Chancellor  Kent 

I 

JAMES  KENT,  LL.D.,  Chancellor  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  and  the  author  of  "  Kent's  Commenta- 
ries on  American  Law,"  was  of  pure  New  England 
descent.     His  father,  Moss  Kent,  a  lawyer  in  Dutchess 

—  now  Putnam  —  County,  was  the  son  of  the  Rev, 
Elisha  Kent,  D,  D.,  a  graduate  of  Yale  College,  and 
himself  the  great-grandson  of  Thomas  Kent,  a  resi- 
dent of  Gloucester,  Massachusetts,  in   1644. 

On  the  distaff  side,  his  grandfather  was  the  cele- 
brated Dr.  Uriah  Rogers,  of  Norwalk,  Connecticut, 

—  Mr.  Kent  deriving  his  lineage  through  the  Moss, 
Russell,  Dudley,  and  other  sturdy  New  England  stock, 
for  the  most  part  substantial  farmers,  with  a  strong 
infusion  of  Presbyterian  clergymen. 

The  Rev.  EHsha  Kent,  D.  D.,  was  one  of  the 
Presbyterian  clergymen  of  the  olden  days.  Gradu- 
ated at  Yale  College  in  1728,  he  studied  divinity,  and 
for  several  years  preached  at  Newtown,  Connecticut. 
Comparatively  early  in  life  he  removed  to  the  pre- 
cinct of  Fredericksburgh,  —  now  the  town  of  South 
East,  —  Dutchess  County,  New  York,  where  he  was 
settled  for  many  years  over  a  parish  still — or  until 

I 


2  MEMOIRS   OF  CHANCELLOR   KENT 

recently  —  known  as  "Kent's  Parish."    Dr.  Kent  died 
in  the  y^aV.'-i  776',',  at- tlie  iige  of  seventy-tAvo  years. 

Rev..  jEljsb^  .Kept  Hve'd  jn  the  quiet  discharge  of 
his  p'asicjfal'dfiitifcs'iiji.  Jh-^.secUided  valley  of  the  Cro- 
ton  for  many  years,  and  during  his  life  had  the  hap- 
piness of  having  his  children  prosperously  settled 
around  him.  His  son,  Moss  Kent,  the  father  of  the 
Chancellor,  was  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1752. 
He  studied  law  for  some  time  in  Norwalk,  Connect- 
icut, under  Lieutenant-Governor  Fitch,  and  subse- 
quently at  Poughkeepsie,  in  the  State  of  New  York, 
under  Mr.  Cranny.  He  was  married  in  1760,  and 
established  himself,  partly  as  a  lawyer  and  partly  as 
a  farmer,  in  the  neighborhood  of  his  father  and  in 
the  precinct  of  Fredericksburgh.  Within  a  very  few 
miles  were  settled  his  three  sisters.  One  of  them, 
Sybil,  was  married  to  Mr.  John  Kane,  an  Irish 
Protestant,  who  was  the  progenitor  of  the  wide- 
spread and  distinguished  family  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  of  which  family  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane,  the 
famous  leader  of  the  Grinnell  Arctic  expeditions  in 
search  of  Sir  John  Franklin,  was  a  member.  A 
second  sister,  Lucy,  was  married  to  Mr.  Cullen,  a 
Scotchman;  a  third  sister  was  married  to  Mr.  Mal- 
colm Morrison,  also  a  native  of  Scotland ;  and  a 
fourth  sister  was  the  wife  of  Mr.  Alexander  Grant,  a 
lieutenant  in  the  42d  Highland  Regiment,  who  per- 
ished with  his  family  in  a  shipwreck  on  the  coast  of 
Nova  Scotia. 

Here  the  old  minister  held  unbounded  sway,  visit- 
ing his  children  and  guiding  his  parishioners.  His 
grandson  so  well  remembered  the   rigidness  of  the 


MEMOIRS  OF  CHANCELLOR  KENT     3 

Puritan  regimen  that  it  seems  to  have  inspired  him 
through  life  with  a  strong  distaste  of  the  severity  and 
asceticism  of  the  sect,  while  he  rivalled  in  every  rela- 
tion of  life  the  purity  of  its  morals.  Yet  his  grand- 
father, though  a  man  severe  and  stern  to  view,  seems 
to  have  had  mingled  with  his  professional  strictness 
a  strong  dash  of  humor.  His  grandson  used  to  tell 
one  or  two  anecdotes  illustrative  of  this  feature  of 
his  character.  On  one  occasion,  while  pacing  on 
horseback  the  roads  of  his  parish,  he  saw  a  collec- 
tion at  a  farm-house  of  young  men  and  girls  quite 
symptomatic  of  a  dancing  party,  —  for  even  in  1760, 
and  in  this  secluded  Presbyterian  valley,  this  fas- 
cinating temptation  was  not  unknown.  The  old  gen- 
tleman immediately  fastened  his  horse  among  the 
pillioned  and  saddled  steeds  of  the  company,  and 
presented  himself  to  the  circle  of  young  folks,  to 
whom  his  vdiite  wig  and  portly  presence  were  never 
more  unwelcome.  Yet  he  was  received  with  great 
respect,  and  assiduously  furnished  with  a  chair,  and 
his  pipe  was  officiously  filled  and  lighted.  After 
smoking  he  smiled  complacently  upon  the  assembly, 
and,  observing  such  a  fine  assembly  of  young  people, 
proposed  a  hymn.  A  good  long  one  was  sung 
with  melancholy  cadence.  After  a  little  while  the 
old  gentleman  condescended  to  smoke  another  pipe, 
and,  that  furnished,  he  set  another  hymn;  and  he 
continued  smoking  and  singing  till  one  young  settler 
after  another  stole  away  with  his  horse,  taking 
his  sweetheart  behind  him  on  the  pillion,  and  the 
evil  spirit  of  the  dance  was  effectually  exorcised. 
The  old  minister  then  took  his  leave  of  the  family, 


4  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

with  a  grave  congratulation  on  the  pleasant  and  prof- 
itable evening  which  had  been  passed.  He  died,  as 
has  been  mentioned,  in  1776,  happily  before  the 
utter  dispersion  of  his  children  by  the  War  of  Inde- 
pendence. The  actual  presence  of  the  enemy  was 
seen  but  httle  in  the  valley  of  the  Upper  Croton,  but 
the  entire  breaking  up  and  permanent  separation  of 
the  near  relatives,  whose  names  have  been  mentioned, 
is  a  striking  exhibition  of  the  wide-spread  conse- 
quences and  effects  of  civil  war. 

The  tender  age  of  James  Kent  would  have  pre- 
vented, even  if  his  inclinations  had  pointed  in  that 
direction,  his  personal  participation  in  the  War  of 
Independence.  He  frequently  stated  to  his  children 
that  he  vividly  remembered  the  outbreak  of  the 
War  and  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  which 
was  signed  when  he  was  thirteen  years  of  age ;  and 
he  used  to  recount  many  incidents  of  the  times,  the 
most  striking  of  which  was  a  slight  adventure  which 
happened  to  him  when  the  British  made  their  attack 
on  Danbury  in  1777.  On  this  occasion  the  future 
Chancellor  was  for  the  first  and  only  time  under  fire. 

The  English  troops  landed  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Saugatuck  and  advanced  on  Greenfarms  in  force. 
Brigadier-General  Gold  F.  Silliman,  then  a  colonel 
(the  grandfather  of  Benjamin  D.  Silliman,  of  New 
York),  collecting  the  militia,  hurried  to  Greenfarms 
to  check  the  advance.  Young  Kent,  noting  the  ex- 
citement of  the  villagers  as  the  militia  was  gathering, 
followed  the  troops  as  they  marched  out  to  oppose 
the  attack.  The  posse  occupied  the  highway  a  little 
in  advance  of  a  fork  of  the  road,  at  which  point  was 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR    KENT  5 

standing  a  school  or  meeting  house,  having  a  chimney- 
on  the  side  facing  the  main  highway.  A  barricade  of 
fence-rails  had  been  hastily  thrown  across  the  road 
and  preparations  were  made  to  dispute  the  passage. 

Young  Kent,  eager  to  see  what  was  going  on, 
climbed  to  the  roof  of  the  house,  and,  edging  his 
w^ay  along  the  ridgepole,  ensconced  himself  behind 
the  wide  chimney,  in  a  place  of  comparative  safety, 
and  from  which  he  could  watch  the  proceedings 
below.  His  interest  in  the  matter  did  not  last  loner, 
however.  The  attacking  party,  having  unlimbered  a 
small  field-piece,  fired  a  round  shot  at  the  barricade, 
which,  flying  high,  struck  the  chimney,  behind  which 
Kent  was  sitting,  with  considerable  force.  Naturally 
thinking  that  he  had  been  discovered,  and  that  the 
British  were  firing  directly  at  him,  he  deemed  pru- 
dence the  better  part,  and  scrambling  down  from  his 
perch  made  his  way  back  to  his  father's  farm.  Many 
years  afterward,  when  on  a  visit  to  this  locality,  he 
pointed  out  the  building,  which  was  still  standing, 
behind  the  chimney  of  which  he  had  hidden  during 
this  encounter. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  when  Kent  came  to 
early  manhood,  the  war  had  drifted  into  the  Southern 
States,  except  for  occasional  raids  along  the  north 
shore  of  Long  Island  Sound.  It  is  doubtful  if  his 
instincts  would  have  led  him  to  embrace  the  calling 
of  a  soldier,  except  at  the  stern  demand  of  duty  to 
his  country;  still,  we  find  his  commission,  dated  Octo- 
ber 24,  1786,  signed  by  George  Clinton,  whereby  he 
was  appointed  Paymaster  No.  i  of  a  militia  regiment 
of  Dutchess  County,  of  which  Elias  van  Banschoter, 


6  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

Esquire,  was  lieutenant-colonel  commander;  and 
Kent  duly  qualified  for  and  acted  in  his  appointed 
place.  Later  in  life  he  followed  with  deep  interest 
the  progress  of  the  great  wars  in  Europe,  and  numer- 
ous manuscript  volumes  testify  to  his  interest  and 
devotion  to  the  subject. 

Shortly  after  his  elevation  to  the  Supreme  Court 
Bench,  Judge  Kent  prepared  a  series  of  memoranda 
of  his  life  and  experiences,  in  which  he  gave  a  very 
clear  idea  of  the  methods  of  study  which  were  the 
means  by  which  he  gained  success  in  life.  He  speaks 
but  briefly  of  his  family,  simply  noting  that  his  grand- 
father "  was  distinguished  for  a  strong  and  lively  mind, 
and  for  wit  and  humor  and  a  talent  to  command,"  and 
speaking  in  equally  affectionate  terms  of  his  father. 
He  notes  his  father's  marriage  to  his  mother,  Miss 
Hannah  Rogers,  the  eldest  daughter  of  Dr.  Uriah 
Rogers,  of  Norwalk,  Connecticut,  and  states  that  "  he 
lived  in  great  conjugal  felicity,  for  she  was  a  woman 
of  great  prudence  and  discretion,  until  her  death,  the 
30th  Dec'r,  1 770."  The  latter  portion  of  the  father's 
life  was  marked  by  vicissitudes.  His  property  was 
several  times  devastated  and  plundered  during  the 
War  of  the  Revolution  by  British  troops  and  Tories. 
He  imprudently  sold  his  farm,  the  proceeds  of  which 
sale,  being  invested  in  the  colonial  currency  of  the 
day,  were  lost  or  greatly  reduced  by  depreciation. 
Later  in  life  he  was  disabled  and  finally  rendered 
totally  helpless  by  repeated  strokes  of  palsy,  and 
died  at  the  home  of  his  son,  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
February  4,  1794,  at  the  age  of  sixty-one  years. 
Mr.  Kent,  in  the  memoranda  to  which  allusion  has 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  7 

been  made,  records  some  of  his  recollections  of  early 
childhood.  After  fixing  the  date  of  his  birth  as  July 
31,  1763,  in  the  precinct  of  Fredericksburgh,  in  the 
county  of  Dutchess,  New  York,  he  continues :  — 

"  After  I  had  begun  to  read  (and  I  well  recollect 
the  first  evening  that  I  essayed  to  read  in  the  spelling- 
book  the  paragraph,  '  Hold  fast  in  the  Lord,'  etc.,  and 
what  joy  I  gave  to  my  mother),  I  was  sent  to  Nor- 
walk  to  school  about  the  age  of  five  years,  and  here  I 
lived  with  my  grandfather  Rogers  till  the  spring  of 
1772,  and  passed  nearly  four  years  at  an  English 
School,  and  in  innocent  and  youthful  sports.  The 
government  of  my  grandfather  was  pretty  strict,  and 
his  family,  after  the  manner  of  the  day,  was  orderly, 
quiet,  and  religious.  On  the  28th  of  July,  1772,  I 
went  to  study  under  Mr.  Kalna,  at  my  Uncle  Kane's 
in  Pawling  Precinct,  and  here  I  commenced  the  study 
of  Cordery  and  the  Latin  tongue.  I  remained  here 
until  April,  1773,  and  then  was  sent  to  Danbury  to 
a  Latin  School  under  the  Rev'd  Ebenezer  Baldwin, 
a  very  respectable  scholar,  and  a  worthy  and  dis- 
tinguished preacher. 

"Such  was  the  progress  of  the  first  ten  years  of 
my  life ;  and  I  well  recollect  I  was  then  as  fond  of 
activity  and  play  as  other  boys,  yet  I  had  discovered 
an  aptitude  to  learn,  and  an  emulation  to  understand 
my  lesson  well.  At  Danbury  I  remained  under  Mr. 
Baldwin  till  his  death  in  Sept'r  or  October,  1776,  and 
had  read  Eutropius,  Justin,  and  Cornelius  Nepos  and 
Virgil,  and  had  made  progress  in  Latin  exercises.  I 
boarded  in  Danbury  at  the  house  of  Deacon  Knapp, 
a  worthy,  pious,  illiterate    farmer,  whom   I  used  to 


8  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

revere  as  a  grandfather.  After  the  death  of  Mr.  Bald- 
win I  continued  my  studies  under  Mr.  Ebenezer  White, 
at  Danbury,  Mr.  Ross,  at  Stratfield,  and  again  with 
Mr.  White  at  Newtown,  until  I  entered  New  Haven 
College,  September,  1777. 

"  During  this  continual  residence  abroad,  the  sea- 
sons with  me  of  unbounded  transport  and  romantic 
felicity  were  my  periodical  visits  at  home,  at  my  father's 
house,  either  at  Fredericksburg  or  at  Compo,  in  Fair- 
field. Nothing  could  equal  the  delightful  pleasures 
of  such  periods,  when  I  was  freed  from  restraints  and 
books  and  tasks,  and  could  roam  with  my  brother 
from  one  juvenile  play  or  amusement  to  another,  in 
rapid  activity.  Perhaps  these  incidents  of  life  are  not 
so  much  noticed  as  they  ought  to  be,  but  I  can  from 
experience  declare  that  these  home  visits  were  the 
most  joyful,  and  my  returns  from  thence  to  my 
studies,  for  a  little  while,  the  most  distressing  periods 
of  my  youthful  life.  And  this  passion  for  home  lasted 
till  I  left  for  college ;  then  the  impression  grew  fainter, 
and  my  return  (to  college  at  least)  ceased  to  be  pain- 
ful and  grew  to  be  pleasant. 

"  My  four  years'  residence  at  New  Haven  College 
were  distinguished  by  nothing  material  in  the  memo- 
randa of  my  life.  I  had  the  reputation  of  being  quick 
to  learn,  and  of  being  industrious  and  full  of  emula- 
tion. I  surpassed  most  of  my  class  in  historical  and 
belles-lettres  learning,  and  was  full  of  youthful  vivac- 
ity and  ardor  ;  I  was  amazingly  regular,  decorous,  and 
industrious,  and,  in  my  last  year,  received  a  large 
share  of  the  esteem  and  approbation  of  the  Presi- 
dent and  tutors.     I  left  New  Haven  September,  1781, 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  9 

clothed  with  college  honors,  and  a  very  promising 
reputation." 

James  Kent  was  graduated  September  22,  1781, 
with  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts.  Sixty-seven 
years  later,  in  February,  1848,  one  of  his  classmates, 
Mr.  Simeon  Baldwin,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Hon.  Wil- 
liam Kent,  the  son  of  the  Chancellor,  supplied  an 
admirable  and  interesting  account  of  the  Chancellor's 
college  life,  which  he  himself,  in  his  "  memoranda," 
dismissed  with  such  brief  description.  Says  Mr. 
Baldwin :  — 

"  I  was  introduced  to  James  Kent  on  the  first  Mon- 
day in  May,  1773,  at  Danbury.  He  had  that  day 
come  to  town,  to  go  to  school  to  my  brother,  the 
Rev'd  Mr.  Baldwin,  the  clergyman  of  the  parish,  who 
had  opened  a  school  for  a  few  boys,  to  fit  them  for 
college.  Danbury  was  then  quite  an  isolated  coun- 
try town  (N.  B.  On  a  vague  rumor  of  the  Bunker 
Hill  battle  I  was  sent  an  express  to  New  Milford, 
sixteen  miles,  to  obtain  a  newspaper  containing  the 
particulars),  its  inhabitants  plain  in  their  manners, 
and  Deacon  Knapp  and  his  wife,  with  whom  he  was 
placed  to  board,  like  most  of  the  people,  were  Puritans 
of  the  old  school.  [After  the  death  of  Mr.  Baldwin, 
Danbury  was  made  a  military  depot;  the  consequent 
intercourse  with  the  army  materially  changed  the 
habits  and  manners  of  the  inhabitants.]  He  was  then 
about  ten  years  of  age,  the  youngest  of  the  school,  a 
friendly,  social,  innocently  playful  boy,  beloved  by 
all  who  knew  little  Jimmy  Kent,  as  he  was  familiarly 
called.  He  was  studious  and  attentive  to  all  the  rules 
of  the  school,  and  a  good  scholar  in  all  the  branches 


lo         MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

taught.  He  became  a  favorite  of  his  instructor,  and, 
guided  by  his  influence,  and  the  guardian  care  of  the 
worthy  family  where  he  hved,  I  do  not  recollect  that 
his  conduct  ever  required  reprimand  or  censure.  He 
continued  in  that  school  until  the  death  of  Mr.  Bald- 
win on  the  5th  of  October,  1776. 

"  We  were  then  separated  one  year,  and  met  as 
freshmen  of  Yale  College  in  1777.  Our  class  was 
small,  consisting  of  young  men  grown  up,  most  of 
them  much  older  than  either  of  us.  He,  I  think,  was 
the  youngest  in  the  class,  but  was  better  fitted  for  his 
standing  than  most  of  them.  While  we  were  mem- 
bers of  college  the  students  were  often  dispersed  and 
their  studies  interrupted  in  consequence  of  the  war, 
but  he  still  kept  his  standing  in  the  class,  and,  to  say 
the  least,  in  all  the  classical  studies,  he  ranked  among 
the  best.  In  history,  in  the  belles-lettres  studies, 
and  in  reading  generally,  he  excelled  them  all.  His 
attention  to  what  he  read  was  strict,  and  his  memory 
was  uncommonly  retentive.  It  was  the  common  re- 
mark of  his  companions  that  they  could  generally  tell 
the  author  he  last  read,  by  the  style  and  matter  of  his 
next  composition. 

"  He  wrote  his  compositions  with  great  care,  and 
in  a  pleasing,  flowing  style.  But  the  rapid  flow  of 
his  ideas  often  embarrassed  him  in  public  speaking, 
whether  extempore  or  memoriter.  When  prepar- 
ing for  public  speaking,  he  has  often  requested  me 
to  hear  him  rehearse,  and,  by  signal,  to  check  him 
when  speaking  too  rapidly,  as  he  generally  would, 
without  knowing  it,  when  he  felt  the  spirit  of  the 
subject.     On  these  occasions,  when  often  checked,  I 


MEMOIRS   OF    CHANCELLOR    KENT  ii 

have  known  him  to  sit  down  and  weep ;  but  he  would 
try  again  and  again,  and  by  repeated  trials,  did  learn, 
in  a  great  measure,  to  regulate  the  rapidity  of  his 
speech,  which,  without  attention,  would,  at  times,  be 
unintelligible. 

"  He  left  college  universally  beloved  by  his  class 
and  ranked  as  a  scholar  among  the  first.  During 
President  Stiles'  administration,  the  Bachelors  had  a 
public  exhibition  connected  with  the  examination  for 
their  degrees  in  July.  Their  cliosophic  and  valedictory 
orations  were  then  pronounced,  and  the  class  dismissed 
till  Commencement,  when  the  Bachelors  occupied  the 
forenoon,  and  the  valedictory  by  the  Masters  closed 
the  exercises  of  the  day.  From  the  year  1798,  the 
valedictory  of  the  Bachelors  has  been  transferred  to 
Commencement,  and  the  Masters  do  not  now  take  part 
in  the  exercises  of  Commencement.  I  find  by  Presi- 
dent Stiles'  diary  that  at  the  July  examination  of  our 
class,  Kent  had  the  most  honorable  appointment; 
namely,  the  cliosophic  oration,  for  which,  from  his 
extensive  reading,  he  was  the  best  qualified  of  any 
in  the  class.  Gridley  had  the  valedictory  in  Latin. 
There  was  also  a  dispute  and  a  dialogue.  At  Com- 
mencement, Baldwin  had  the  salutatory  oration  in 
Latin ;  Perkins,  oration  in  Greek  on  Greek  Litera- 
ture ;  Hinckley,  oration  in  English.  There  was  a 
dispute  on  the  question  whether  the  modern  sur- 
passes the  ancient  literature,  in  which  Gridley  and 
Kent  maintained  the  affirmative,  and  Channing  and 
Stebbins  the  negative.  These,  with  sundry  syllogistic 
disputes,  occupied  the  forenoon.  In  the  afternoon 
the  Masters  exhibited  a  poem  by  Barlow,  orations  by 


12  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR    KENT 

Webster  and  Wolcott,  and  the  valedictory  by  Tutor 
Meigs. 

"When  we  took  our  degree  as  Masters  (in  1784), 
Kent  was  appointed  to  dehver  an  oration.  He  ac- 
cepted the  appointment,  but  was  prevented  from 
attending,  and  sent  an  apology  to  the  President. 
Baldwin  also  delivered  an  oration  in  English,  and 
Channing  delivered  the  valedictory.  No  others  of 
the  class  took  part  in  the  exercises.  It  will  be  re- 
membered we  were  in  college  during  part  of  the 
Revolutionary  War,  and  all  the  classes  were  for  a 
time  convened  for  safety  in  separate  country  towns, 
in  the  centre  of  the  State.  James  Kent  and  myself 
joined  the  class  in  Glastenbury,  under  the  care  of 
Professor  Strong  as  tutor,  and  continued  together  un- 
til the  January  vacation ;  were  then  dismissed,  and 
not  called  together  again  until  June  of  the  next  year. 
We  then  met  at  New  Haven  and  Doctor  Stiles  was 
inaugurated  President.  Mr.  Atwater  was  appointed 
tutor  of  our  class,  —  a  meek,  modest,  unassuming 
man,  a  good  scholar  in  the  languages  taught,  a 
preacher  by  profession,  not  much  of  an  orator  or 
belles-lettres  scholar,  but  peculiarly  affectionate,  kind, 
and  conscientiously  devoted  to  the  faithful  discharge 
of  his  official  duties.  We  continued  under  his  faithful 
care  and  instruction  till  we  became  seniors.  The 
President  then  became  our  instructor. 

"On  the  5th  of  July,  1779,  the  British  troops  took 
possession  of  New  Haven,  and  the  students  were 
again  scattered.  They  were  not  called  to  return  till 
the  end  of  the  fall  vacation,  about  ist  of  November 
following.     The  winter  of  1779-80  was   severe,   and 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  13 

the  quantity  of  snow  from  successive  and  continued 
storms  was  seldom,  if  ever,  equalled  ;  in  consequence 
of  which  the  steward  of  college  informed  the  Presi- 
dent that  he  could  no  longer  furnish  commons  for 
the  students.  College  was  of  course  dismissed,  a  fort- 
night before  the  usual  January  vacation,  and  did  not 
convene  again  until  the  next  summer.  Our  class  were 
then  juniors.  From  that  time  we  pursued  our  studies 
without  further  interruption ;  but  it  will  be  perceived 
that  a  large  portion  of  valuable  term  time  was  lost  by 
those  various  interruptions ;  and  when  together,  our 
means  of  instruction  and  of  obtaining  information 
were  very  much  limited,  —  the  college  library  then 
consisting  of  little  more  than  three  thousand  volumes, 
most  of  them  valuable  for  their  antiquity  and  much 
of  the  time  kept  out  of  the  town  for  safety ;  and  the 
Society  libraries,  the  Linonian  and  the  Brothers',  then 
consisted  of  about  one  hundred  and  sixty  volumes 
each,  —  now  over  nine  thousand  volumes.  The  faculty 
of  college  then  consisted  of  the  President,  one  pro- 
fessor, and  three  tutors,  —  a  very  limited  establish- 
ment compared  with  what  it  is  now.  The  classical 
studies  were  proportionally  limited. 

"  The  only  Latin  authors  then  studied  classically 
were  Virgil,  Cicero's  Orations  and  his  treatise  on 
oratory,  and  some  parts  of  Horace.  The  Greek  Tes- 
tament was  the  only  book  read  in  that  language.  The 
Hebrew  language  was  taught  by  the  President,  to  the 
very  few  who  volunteered.  A  few, —  generally  two  or 
three  in  each  class,  —  to  qualify  themselves  for  the 
Dean's  County,  so  called,  made  themselves  acquainted 
with  Homer  and  Xenophon  and  a  few  other  classical 


14         MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

books  ;  but  this  was  optional.  Perkins  and  Channing 
were  the  Dean  scholars  in  our  class.  It  was  then  the 
duty  of  the  tutors  to  give  all  the  instruction  which  the 
pupils  received  during  the  first  three  years,  not  only 
in  the  languages,  in  mathematics,  natural  philosophy, 
and  astronomy,  but  in  grammar,  rhetoric,  logic,  com- 
position, oratory,  history,  geography,  and  the  belles 
lettres  generally.  Chemistry,  mineralogy,  and  geol- 
ogy were  then  little  known  and  not  studied ;  and  no 
stated  lectures  were  then  delivered  on  any  literary 
subjects. 

"  Considering  these  things,  I  have  often  viewed 
with  wonder  the  roll  of  distinguished  men  found 
among  our  college  contemporaries,  as  may  be  seen 
particularly  in  a  note  to  Chancellor  Kent's  oration 
before  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society,  in  1831.  Some 
of  them,  doubtless,  owe  their  distinction  to  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  times  in  which  they  came  forward 
into  active  life,  but  many  of  them  have  exhibited  a 
laudable  improvement  upon  the  imperfect  founda- 
tions thus  acquired  at  college.  Among  the  distin- 
guished men  of  this  description  is  the  illustrious 
subject  of  this  memoir.  Although  a  distinguished 
scholar  in  his  class,  he  acquired  nothing  at  college, 
and  nothing  in  the  circumstances  of  the  times,  which, 
without  great  personal  effort,  could  make  him  the 
most  eminent  of  the  jurists  of  his  time. 

"  When  we  left  college,  I,  having  no  dependence 
for  further  support,  took  a  school  in  New  Haven  for 
the  first  year.  The  second  year,  by  the  recommenda- 
tion of  the  faculty  of  Yale  College,  I  (in  connection 
with    Mr.  Lovett)  took   charge  of  the  Academy  in 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  15 

Albany,  then  under  the  patronage  of  the  mayor  and 
aldermen  of  the  city,  and  continued  there  until  ap- 
pointed tutor  in  Yale  College.  I  remained  in  that 
office  three  years,  and,  during  that  time,  studied  law 
and  was  admitted  to  practice.  James  Kent  was  more 
fortunate.  He  immediately  entered  the  office  of  Mr. 
Benson,^  and  continued  a  faithful,  uninterrupted  stu- 
dent for  three  years,  and  was  then  examined  and 
honorably  admitted   to   practice. 

"  When  I  resided  in  Albany  and  he  in  Poughkeep- 
sie,  our  correspondence  commenced  and  has  con- 
tinued ever  since.  That  correspondence  is  peculiarly 
interesting  to  me,  not  merely  from  the  warm  expres- 
sions of  friendly  attachment,  which  I  never  doubted, 
but  as  they  pointed  out  the  course  he  meant  to 
pursue,  and  did  pursue,  to  attain  the  eminence  to 
which  he  aspired.  In  a  letter  dated  Sept.  15,  1782, 
the  first  of  our  regular  correspondence,  after  some 
general  remarks,  he  writes :  — 

The  time,  sir,  has  arrived  when  we  must  think  seriously 
of  coming  forth  upon  the  stage  of  human  life.  ...  It  is  a 
matter  of  perfect  indifference  what  profession  we  are  dele- 
gated to  follow,  .  .  .  since  all  our  labors  and  pursuits  ought 
uniformly  to  center  in  this  one  great  object,  the  glory  of 
our  Creator  and  the  general  interest  of  mankind.  These 
ought  to  be  in  all,  and  they  are  in  the  Christian  and  the 
Patriot,  the  governing  principles  of  life,  and  the  great  effica- 
cious springs  of  action.  Nam  non  nobis  ipsis  nati  sunius, 
sed  partim  patrice,  partim  amicis. 

"  In  his  letter  of  Oct.  10,  1782,  he  writes:  — 
1  Hon.  Egbert  Benson,  born  1746,  died  1833. 


i6         MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

The  study  of  the  law  has  absorbed  my  principal  attention 
for  the  last  twelve  months.  Law,  I  mu^t  frankly  confess,  is 
a  field  which  is  uninteresting  and  boundless.  Notwithstand- 
ing, it  leads  forward  to  the  first  stations  in  the  State.  The 
study  is  so  encumbered  with  voluminous  rubbish  and  the 
baggage  of  folios  that  it  requires  uncommon  assiduity  and 
patience  to  manage  so  unwieldy  a  work.  Yet  this  adage 
often  serves  to  steel  my  courage  and  smooth  the  rugged 
moments  of  despair :  "  The  harder  the  conflict  the  more 
glorious  the  triumph." 

"  In  his  letter  of  June  i6,  1783,  in  answer  to  mine, 
proposing  a  solitary  retirement  from  the  busy  world, 
etc.,  he  answers :  — 

We  are  all  subject  to  ebbs  and  flows  of  the  ocean  of  am- 
bition. When  you  wrote,  it  was  probably  low  tide  with 
you ;  but,  sir,  had  we  not  better  first  step  forward  into  the 
scenes  of  public  life,  discharge  our  duty  to  our  friends  and 
to  our  country,  like  true  patriots,  and  benevolent  Christians ; 
assist  in  forming  the  heart  by  precept  and  in  subduing  it  by 
example ;  in  guarding  our  political  constitution  as  the  most 
sacred  rampart  of  national  independence  and  freedom  ;  in 
asserting  the  rights  of  individuals  by  laws  and  an  equitable 
administration  of  justice  ;  in  being  noble  in  our  motives  and 
diffusive  in  our  exertions,  and  aim  at  the  lustre,  the  merit, 
and  the  utility  of  fixed  stars  in  the  firmament  of  the  Com- 
monwealth ?  Then,  my  friend,  in  the  afternoon  of  life,  when 
the  hand  of  time  and  the  load  of  meritorious  burden  shall 
weigh  us  down  and  apprise  us  of  the  season  to  retire,  an 
approving  conscience  and  an  applauding  country  will  render 
a  retreat  honorable,  and  make  us  happy  neighbors  and  com- 
panions in  your  rural  hermitage. 

"  In  answer  to  my  letter,  informing  him  of  his 
appointment  by  the  faculty  to  deliver  an  oration  at 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR  KENT  17 

Commencement,  when  a  candidate  for  the  degree 
of  Master  of  Arts,  he  acknowledges  the  honor  done 
him  by  the  appointment,  and  writes :  — 

I  shall  endeavor  to  discharge  the  part  honorably  to  my- 
self, and  I  could  wish  not  inconsisten.t  with  the  President's 
judgment  and  the  reputation  of  the  university. 

"In  his  letter  of  the  8th  of  September,  1784,  he 
writes :  — 

I  am  yet  a  poor  clerk  to  an  attorney,  and  all  my  property 
is  confined  to  my  chest ;  but  1  have  a  thirst  for  knowledge 
and  a  determination  to  put  in  a  claim  for  some  of  those 
honors  which  imprint  immortality  on  characters ;  and  this 
thirst  and  this  determination,  I  trust,  under  providence, 
will  lead  me  forward  to  some  of  those  good  and  generous 
actions,  and  that  sacred  integrity  of  conduct  and  principle, 
which  will  render  me  not  a  dishonorable  object  to  the  few 
who  love  me. 

"In  the  year  1794,  after  he  removed  to  New  York 
and  became  professor  of  law  in  Columbia  College  I 
had  the  pleasure  of  visiting  him  and  found  that,  with 
a  view  of  enlarging  the  field  and  opening  new  sources 
of  obtaining  useful  knowledge,  he  had  determined  to 
revise  and  extend  his  knowledge  of  the  ancient  lan- 
guages, and  to  that  end  adhered  rigidly  to  a  sys- 
tematic division  of  his  time  between  the  languages, 
his  profession,  and  the  belles  lettres ;  and  hearing  him 
lament  the  want  of  a  full  collection  of  the  works  of 
Cicero,  I  had  the  pleasure,  soon  after,  to  present 
him  with  a  set,  which  I  received  from  my  brother's 
library,  and  which  I  believed  he  would  use  to  better 
advantage  than  I  had,  or  could.    It  consisted,  I  think, 


i8  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

of  ten  or  twelve  volumes.     In  his  acknowledgment  he 
says :  — 

These,  with  a  little  volume  I  had,  complete  the  entire  re- 
mains of  the  greatest  philosopher,  scholar,  and  orator,  take 
him  all  in  all,  of  the  ancient  world. 

"  I  might  extend  similar  extracts  from  his  interest- 
ing correspondence,  but  these  are  sufficient  to  show 
that  he  was  prompted  by  a  laudable  ambition  for 
distinguished  usefulness,  to  be  attained  by  honorable 
means.  He  early,  from  conviction,  became  a  Federal- 
ist, of  the  Washington  school,  and  conscientiously  so 
continued  through  life,  without  regarding  the  changes 
or  influence  of  political  parties.  Whether  in  other 
respects  he  followed  the  honorable  rules  of  action  he 
prescribed  for  himself  in  early  life  to  guide  him  in  his 
ambitious  career,  is  better  known  to  his  contempora- 
ries, in  the  same  field,  of  his  after  life." 

Mr.  Kent's  own  estimate  of  his  early  attainments 
was  modest,  for  he  records,  in  his  "  Memoranda:  " 

"  I  stood  as  well  as  any  of  my  class,  but  the  test  of 
scholarship  at  that  day  was  contemptible.  I  was 
only  a  very  inferior  classical  scholar,  and  we  were  not 
required,  and  I  had  never  looked  into  any  Greek  book 
but  the  New  Testament.  My  favorite  studies  were 
geography,  history,  poetry,  belles  lettres,  etc.  When 
the  college  was  broken  up  and  dispersed  in  July,  1779, 
by  the  British,  I  retired  to  a  country  village,  and, 
finding  Blackstone's  Commentaries,  I  read  the  four 
volumes.  Parts  of  the  work  struck  my  taste,  and  the 
work  inspired  me,  at  the  age  of  15,  with  awe,  and  I 
fondly  determined  to  be  a  lawyer. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  19 

"In  November,  1781,  I  was  placed  by  my  father 
with  Mr.  (now  called  Judge)  Benson,  who  was  then 
Attorney-General,  at  Poughkeepsie,  on  the  banks  of 
the  Hudson,  and  in  my  native  county  of  Dutchess. 
There  I  entered  on  law,  and  was  the  most  modest, 
steady,  industrious  student  that  such  a  place  ever  saw. 
I  read,  the  following  winter,  Grotius  and  Pufifendorf, 
in  huge  folios,  and  made  copious  extracts.  My  fellow 
students,  who  were  more  gay  and  gallant,  thought  me 
very  odd  and  dull  in  my  taste,  but  out  of  five  of  them, 
four  died  in  middle  life,  drunkards.  I  was  free  from 
all  dissipations ;  I  had  never  danced,  played  cards, 
or  sported  with  a  gun,  or  drunk  anything  but  water. 
In  1782  I  read  Smollett's  History  of  England,  and 
procured  at  a  farmer's  house  where  I  boarded,  Rapin's 
History  ^  (a  huge  folio),  and  read  it  through ;  and  I 
found  during  the  course  of  the  last  summer,  among 
my  papers,  my  MS.  abridgment  of  Rapin's  disserta- 
tion on  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  Anglo-Saxons. 
I  abridged  Hale's  '  History  of  the  Common  Laws,' 
and  the  old  Books  of  Practice,  and  read  parts  of 
Blackstone  again  and  again.  The  same  year  I  pro- 
cured Hume's  History,  and  his  profound  reflections 
and  admirable  eloquence  struck  most  deeply  on  my 
youthful  mind.  I  extracted  the  most  admired  parts, 
and  made  several  volumes  of  MSS." 

In  a  letter  written  in  the  year  1847  to  William  B. 
Reed,  the  Chancellor  recalls  these  days  passed  as  a 
law  student  in  the  office  of  Attorney-General  Benson. 
"In  1 78 1,"  he  wrote,  "I  left  college  and  was  placed 

1  Paul  de  Rapin  (1661-1725),  author  of  VHistoire  d' Angleterre. 
Translated  into  English  by  Tindal.     2  vols.  1725-31. 


20         MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

as  a  law  student  at  Potighkeepsie,  in  the  office  of  Mr. 
Benson,  then  Attorney-General  of  the  State,  and  there 
I  saw,  and  from  time  to  time  listened  to,  the  great 
men  that  visited  there,  such  as  George  Clinton, 
Washington,  Hamilton,  Lawrence,  Schuyler,  Duer, 
Duche,  etc.,  and  imbibed  the  utmost  veneration  for 
such  characters." 

Still  earlier  than  this,  in  an  anniversary  discourse, 
as  president  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society, 
delivered  December  6,  1828,  Chancellor  Kent  said  of 
Egbert  Benson :  — 

"  Egbert  Benson  rendered  eminent  service  to  this 
State  (New  York)  throughout  the  whole  period  of  the 
American  War.  He  was  zealous,  firm,  active,  and 
extremely  useful,  from  the  very  beginning  of  the 
contest.  In  1777  he  was  appointed  Attorney-General, 
and  in  that  office,  in  the  Legislature,  and  in  Congress, 
his  devotion  to  the  public  interest  was  unremitted. 
The  value  of  his  services  as  a  member  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, throughout  the  War,  was  beyond  all  price,  and  in 
the  able,  constant,  accurate,  and  faithful  discharge  of 
the  duties  of  that  station  he  has  scarcely  an  equal 
in  the  legislative  annals  of  the  State." 

Judge  Benson  died  in  the  year  1833.  Upon  the 
occurrence  of  that  event  Judge  William  Kent,  the  son 
of  the  Chancellor,  in  a  private  note  thus  characterized 
this  extraordinary  man  :  — 

"  By  his  long  retirement  from  the  labors  of  pro- 
fessional and  political  life,  he  had  gradually  disap- 
peared from  the  public  observation ;  yet  there  are 
many  persons  living  to  whom  his  name  will  bring 
up  agreeable  association  and    recollection.     He  was 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         21 

to  the  last  a  very  handsome  old  man.  His  mind 
was  vigorous  and  active  to  the  day  of  his  death, 
while  his  untiring  vivacity,  his  fund  of  anecdote,  his 
power  of  narration,  his  love  of  argument,  his  humor, 
and  his  various  points  of  eccentricity  and  quaintness 
gave  him  an  individuality  and  interest  which  it  was 
amusing  to  observe  and  it  is  pleasing  to  recall.  He 
remained  through  life  an  invincible  bachelor,  but 
there  was  nothing  morose  nor  ascetic  about  him. 
No  one  was  more  fond  of  society;  no  one  enjoyed 
more,  but  always  in  an  innocent  and  decorous  degree, 
the  pleasures  of  the  table.  It  was  a  jubilee  to  the 
children  and  a  pleasure  to  the  parents  when,  on  a 
summer  afternoon,  the  Judge  was  seen  to  drive  up 
to  the  door  of  a  friend,  —  hke  Mr.  Van  Schaak  at 
Kinderhook,  or  the  Patroon,  or  the  Chancellor  at 
Albany,  announcing  his  intention  of  passing  a  few 
days,  and  carefully  dislodging  from  his  carriage  a  fine 
fish,  or  a  pair  of  canvas-back  ducks,  or  some  other 
epicurean  rarity,  which  he  delivered  over  to  the 
cook,  with  some  skillful  suggestions  as  to  the  dressing. 
Then  would  follow  a  season  of  liveliness  and  gayety, 
—  of  thronging  visitors,  disputations,  dinners,  con- 
versations, in  which  the  old  gentleman  would  display 
all  his  peculiarities,  all  his  pertinacity  and  disputa- 
tiousness ;  keep  the  table  in  a  roar,  while  he  never 
for  a  moment  forgot  that  he  was  a  Federalist  and  a 
gentleman.  Woe  to  the  man  who  crossed  his  path 
and  interfered  with  his  hobbies !  William  Cobbett 
was  not  a  more  determined  enemy  of  the  potato,  and 
luckless  was  the  agriculturalist  who  ventured  to  assert 
that  there  was  any  nutriment  in  this  much  discussed 


22  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

esculent.  More  zealous  still  he  was  for  the  Dutch 
Reformed  Church  and  the  Heidelberg  Catechism ; 
and  he  anticipated  the  times  of  Oxford  tracts  and 
Puseyite  theology  in  his  denunciations  of  the  papistical 
tendencies  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  But  his  pleni- 
tude of  zeal  and  constancy  was  reserved  for  his 
Dutch  brethren  in  America,  on  whose  behalf  he  was 
ready  to  do  battle  at  all  times  and  against  the  hostile 
world. 

" '  What,  Mr.  Benson,'  asked  the  late  Dr.  Dwight, 
'are  the  peculiar  vices  of  the  Dutch?'  'Vices,  sir,' 
was  the  reply,  —  'they  have  none!'  The  Doctor,  a 
little  embarrassed,  changed  his  question :  '  Tell  me, 
then,  their  peculiar  virtues.'  '  Virtues,'  said  the  Judge, 
— '  they  have  all  the  virtues  ! '  He  never  forgave 
Washington  Irving's  '  History  of  New  York;  '  and  his 
criticism  of  '  Irving's  Wife,'  a  very  amusing  specimen 
of  dry  special  pleading,  applied  to  poetic  diction  and 
imaginative  romance,  was  the  production  of  a  feeling 
which  approached  nearly  to  malice.  Irving's  retort, 
however,  was  good-humored,  when  he  made  one  of 
his  heroes  die  in  the  arms  of  'Justus  Benson,  an 
ancient  and  honored  poet  of  the  Manhattoes.'  And 
yet  the  Judge  ate  the  potatoes  he  despised,  admired 
the  liturgy  of  the  church  he  attacked,  and  selected 
some  of  his  chosen  friends  from  among  the  Yankees, 
the  hereditary  enemies  of  his  blood  and  race." 

To  return  to  Chancellor  Kent's  memoranda  after 
this  digression :  "  I  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  of  the 
Supreme  Court  in  January,  1785,"  he  records,  "at 
the  age  of  twenty-one,  and  then  married,  without  one 
cent  of  property;  for  my  education  exhausted  all  my 


MEMOIRS    OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  23 

kind  father's  resources  and  left  me  in  debt  four  hun- 
dred dollars,  which  took  me  two  or  three  years  to 
discharge.  Why  did  I  marry?  I  answer  that,  at  the 
farmer's  house  where  I  boarded,  one  of  his  daughters, 
a  httle,  modest,  lovely  girl  of  fourteen,  gradually 
caught  my  attention  and  insensibly  stole  upon  my 
affections,  and,  before  I  thought  of  love  or  knew  what 
it  was,  I  was  most  violently  affected.  I  was  twenty- 
one  and  my  wife  sixteen  when  we  married,  and  that 
charming  and  lovely  girl  has  been  the  idol  and  solace 
of  my  hfe,  and  is  now  with  me  in  my  office,  uncon- 
scious that  I  am  writing  this  concerning  her.  We 
have  both  had  uniform  health  and  the  most  perfect 
and  unalloyed  domestic  happiness,  and  are  both  as 
well  now,  and  in  as  good  spirits,  as  when  we  married. 

"On  the  1 2th  of  April,  1785,  I  entered  into  part- 
nership with  Gilbert  Livingston,  for  twelve  years, 
with  liberty  to  remove  out  of  Dutchess  at  any  time 
after  six  years.  The  great  and  established  run  of 
business  which  he  then  had  and  my  embarrassments 
and  poverty  rendered  the  connection  necessary  and 
advisable.  I  had  now  reached  the  age  of  twenty-one 
and  the  marriage  state.  I  soon  felt  the  salutary  effects 
of  business,  and  after  boarding  a  year  and  a  half  at 
my  father-in-law's,  I  had  purchased  and  repaired  and 
fitted  a  snug  dwelling-house  in  town,  to  which  I  moved 
and  began  housekeeping  the  lOth  of  October,  1786." 

In  the  autumn  of  1839,  after  the  marriage  of  the 
youngest  of  his  children,  the  Chancellor  thus  wrote  in 
his  diary :  — 

We  are  reduced  at  present  to  the  primitive  state  in 
which  we  began  housekeeping  in  October,  17S6.     We  had 


24         MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

then  no  person  with  us  but  my  brother  and  a  servant  girl,  at 
fourteen  shiUings  a  month,  and  a  little  boy ;  now  our  chil- 
dren are  all  gone.  Mary  is  settled  in  Boston  and  Eliza  is 
with  her  daughter  in  Philadelphia  and  expects  to  be  there 
until  near  December.  But  in  1786  we  were  young  and 
buoyant  and  full  of  hopes  and  joys  and  love.  Our  house  was 
very  small  and  our  furniture  very  scanty,  but  it  was  new  and 
charmed  us  as  elegant  for  that  day,  and  my  brother  was  a 
good  helpmate  and  was  willing  and  able  to  do  anything. 
We  lived  neat  and  simple  and  snug,  and  so  I  want  to  live 
now,  with  a  cheaper  establishment  and  a  house  of  less  size. 

"  My  reflections  soon  began  to  recall,"  the  memo- 
randa continue,  "  the  memory  of  my  classic  studies, 
which  I  had  most  improperly  and  totally  neglected 
ever  since  I  left  college  in  178 1.  I  had  never  looked 
into  a  Latin  or  Greek  book  since  that  time,  and  I  had 
lost  in  a  great  degree  the  Latin,  and  had  forgotten 
even  how  to  read  the  Greek,  language. 

"At  the  June  circuit,  in  1786,  I  saw  Edward  Liv- 
ingston (afterwards  the  codifier  for  Louisiana),  and 
he  had  a  pocket  Horace  and  read  some  passages  to 
me,  and  pointed  out  their  beauties,  assuming  that  I 
well  understood  Horace.  I  said  nothing,  but  was 
stung  with  shame  and  mortification.  I  purchased 
immediately  Horace  and  Virgil,  a  dictionary  and 
grammar,  and  a  Greek  lexicon  and  grammar,  and  the 
Testament,  and  formed  my  resolution,  promptly  and 
decidedly,  to  recover  the  lost  languages.  I  studied  in 
my  little  cottage  mornings,  and  devoted  an  hour  to 
Greek  and  another  to  Latin  daily.  I  soon  increased  it 
to  two  for  each  tongue  in  the  twenty-four  hours.  My 
acquaintance  with  the  languages  increased  rapidly. 


MEMOIRS  OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  25 

**  After  I  had  read  Horace  and  Virgil,  I  ventured 
upon  Livy  for  the  first  time  in  my  life ;  and,  after  I  had 
construed  the  Greek  Testament,  I  took  up  the  Iliad, 
and  I  can  hardly  describe  at  this  day  the  enthusiasm 
with  which  I  perseveringly  read  and  studied,  in  the 
originals,  Livy  and  the  Iliad.  It  gave  me  inspiration. 
I  purchased  a  French  dictionary  'and  grammar,  and 
began  French,  and  gave  an  hour  to  that  language 
daily.  I  appropriated  the  business  part  of  the  day 
to  law,  and  read  Coke  on  Littleton  and  made  copious 
notes.  I  devoted  evenings  to  English  literature  in 
company  with  my  wife. 

"  The  English  classics  I,  however,  had  not  neglected. 
They  had  been  constantly  cultivated,  and  I  devoted, 
from  the  time  of  my  marriage,  a  great  many  happy 
hours  to  communicate  a  knowledge  of  and  taste  for 
polite  English  authors  to  my  wife.  She  inherited, 
not  only  a  sound  and  vigorous  mind,  but  the  prin- 
ciples of  correct  taste,  and  soon  perceived  the  beau- 
ties and  felt  a  relish  for  the  pleasures  of  pure  and 
elegant  learning.  I  began  early  to  form  a  select  and 
chosen  library,  and  that  object  I  have  ever  since  kept 
steadily  in  view,  and  I  have  always  found  my  library 
to  constitute  a  great  and  essential  source  of  felicity. 
It  has  been  my  mentor,  my  guardian  genius,  and  has 
cherished  in  me  a  passion  for  letters  which  has  liter- 
ally grown  with  my  growth  and  strengthened  with  my 
strength.  But  to  return  to  my  classic  studies  which  I 
had  undertaken  to  revive. 

"  I  purchased  Smart's  Horace  and  in  January, 
1787,  set  apart  an  hour  every  morning  to  read  it. 
My  brother,  who  then  boarded  with  me,  was  a  much 


26  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

more  recent  and  better  classic  scholar  than  myself, 
and  assisted  me  in  my  first  and  feeble  efforts. 
Horace  was  then  so  forbidding,  and  my  disreUsh  of 
the  language  so  great,  that  it  was  not  till  January, 
1789  (the  space  of  two  years),  that  I  finished  the 
reading  of  Horace  with  a  translation.  I  began 
Davidson's  Virgil  and  finished  that  in  November, 
1789,  and  by  the  28th  March,  1790,  I  had  read 
Ovid's  Metamorphoses  and  Horace  again. 

"  On  the  30th  March,  1790,1  ventured  on  Cicero  de 
Oratore  without  a  translation,  and  concluded  him  by 
6th  September,  1790,  and  my  subsequent  rapid  and 
ardent  progress  in  the  Latin  classics  was  as  follows : 
From  6  September,  to  20  October,  1790,  Sallust; 
20  October,  1790,  to  7  October,  1791,  Jacoby;  16 
October,  1791,  to  27  July,  1792,  Livy;  August,  1792, 
to  24  October,  1792,  Cresar;  25  March,  1793,  to 
August  4,  Cicero's  Select  Orations;  August  5,  1793, 
to  September  9,  Cicero  de  Officiis;  September  11, 
1793.  to  October  19,  Q.  Curtius ;  October  19,  1793, 
to  November  17,  Bynkershoeck's  Quotations  Publici 
Juris;  January  7,  1794,  Quinctilian ;  June,  1794, 
Suetonius  and    Florus. 

"  In  December,  1788,1  purchased  a  Greek  grammar 
and  learned  the  letters  and  grammar,  and  in  January 
following  I  began  the  Testament;  and  after  slow  and 
dull  progress  till  November,  1789, 1  opened  and  read  a 
part  of  Lucian's  Dialogues.  May  5,  1790,  I  began 
Homer's  Iliad,  and  read  and  finished  it  with  great 
delight  by  August  3,  1791.  In  three  months  after,  I 
read  Xenophon's  Cyropa^dia.  In  the  course  of  the 
summer  and  autumn  of  1793  I  read  part  of  Demos- 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  27 

thenes  and  Hesiod,  and  with  them  I  terminated,  and 
probably  forever ,  my  pursuits  in  Grecian  hterature ; 
for  I  find  my  subsequent  neglect  has  effaced  in  a 
great  degree  the  knowledge  of  the  language,  and 
the  books  are  too  scarce  and  the  type  too  fine  to 
render  the  more  thorough  attainment  of  the  language 
a  very  desirable  thing.  I  must,  however,  observe  that 
the  sublimity  and  pathos  of  the  fierce  and  barbarous 
scenes  of  the  Iliad  were  so  powerful  and  impressive 
as  to  render  the  reading  of  Homer  a  rich  compen- 
sation for  all  my  pains. 

"The  Frcncli  I  began  in  1789  and  read  Telemaque; 
In  1790,  Corneille's  Select  Plays,  Marmontel's  Tales ; 
1 79 1,  Sully's  Memoirs;  1792,  Sevigne's  Letters, 
Montesquieu;  1793,  Belisaire,  DeRoby's  Memoirs, 
Rousseau's  Eloise;  1794,  Anacharsis.  In  short,  by 
the  year  1793  I  had  become  a  master  of  the  Latin 
and  French  languages  and  read  the  authors  with 
facility.  Few  persons  ever  pursued  classic  studies 
with  more  pleasure  and  ardor  than  I  did.  They 
opened  to  me  a  world  of  learning,  of  happiness,  and  of 
fame,  and  I  flattered  myself  I  had  discovered  the  true 
time  of  my  most  solid  happiness  and  honor.  I 
gradually  adopted  a  method  of  dividing  my  time,  and 
adhered  to  it  with  the  exactest  punctuality.  In  the 
morning  till  half  after  eight  I  read  Latin,  then  Greek 
until  ten.  Then  I  gave  myself  up  to  law  or  business 
until  the  afternoon,  and,  after  two  hours'  attention  to 
French,  I  concluded  the  rest  of  the  day  with  some 
English  author.  This  division  of  time  has  ripened 
with  me  into  habit,  and  I  adhere  to  it  in  a  great 
degree  still.     It  enables  me  to  do  more  reading  than 


28  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

I  otherwise  could.  No  sooner  docs  the  mind  grow 
weary  with  one  department  but  it  is  instantly  relieved 
by  introduction  to  another.  Variety  seems  to  refresh 
and  to  animate  it. 

"  But  I  recall  my  recollections  back  to  the  period 
at  which  I  commenced  the  independent  and  happy 
station  of  lord  of  my  own  fireside.  Our  house  was 
small,  but  neat  and  convenient.  It  impressed  all  who 
entered  it  with  the  image  of  domestic  taste  and 
felicity.  I  suspect  that  few  persons  have  ever  lived 
with  more  satisfaction  than  I  did  in  my  simple,  snug, 
and  classic  style  at  Poughkeepsie  from  October, 
1786,  to  my  removal  to  New  York  on  the  27th 
of  April,  1793." 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         29 


II 

THE  young  lawyer  was  now  fairly  committed  to 
his  career.  He  had  been  admitted  to  the  Bar. 
He  had  married  in  April,  1785,  Miss  Elizabeth  Bailey, 
daughter  of  Col.  John  Bailey,  of  Poughkeepsie,  New 
York,  a  young  lady  a  few  years  his  junior.  Both 
were  young,  and  both  were  poor.  As  one  eulogist-' 
has  said :  "  His  industry  and  learning,  his  intellectual 
powers,  and  his  unblemished  character  were  all  the 
capital  he  possessed,  and  the  only  dowry  of  the  bride 
were  her  personal  charms,  her  firm  principles  and 
excellent  judgment,  the  sweetness  of  her  temper,  and 
the  purity  of  her  heart.  ,  It  is  true,  then,  that  they 
were  poor  —  exceedingly  poor;  but  it  is  also  true 
that,  in  their  poverty,  they  were  exceedingly  rich ;  for, 
in  addition  to  the  riches  I  have  named,  their  mutual 
affection  was  disinterested  and  sincere,  and  their  trust 
in  Providence  unlimited  and  unwavering."  Although 
his  legal  practice  had  not  become  so  large  as  to  yield 
him  any  considerable  income,  his  studious  and  dig- 
nified manner,  his  thorough  conscientiousness  in  the 
preparation,  and  care  in  the  conduct  of  the  business 
committed  to  his  charge,  soon  won  for  him  an  envi- 
able position  at  the  bar.  He  had  not  been  long  in 
practice  when  an  event  occurred  in  which  he  took  the 

1  Hon.  John  Duer,  Discourse  before  the  Bar  of  New  York,  April 
12,  1S48. 


30         MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

deepest  interest,  and  which  was  of  the  last  importance 
in  the  political  history  of  the  United  States.  This  was 
the  assembling,  at  Poughkeepsie,  of  the  convention  of 
the  State  of  New  York,  convened  in  the  summer  of 
1/88  to  consider  the  ratification  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  which  had  been  adopted  by  the 
Federal  Convention,  at  Philadelphia,  in  the  September 
previous.  Kent  thoroughly  comprehended  the  grave 
and  important  nature  of  this  convention,  and  listened 
to  its  deliberations  with  the  deepest  interest.  In  a 
letter  written  to  Robert  Troup,  Esq.,  of  New  York, 
June  lo,  1788,  he  details  the  opening  of  the  conven- 
tion by  the  Chancellor,  and  gives  an  abstract  of  his 
speech.     In  conclusion  he  states :  — 

As  to  the  result,  I  can  only  say  I  look  forward  to  it  with 
anxious  uncertainty.  I  do  not  abandon  hope.  I  think  the 
opposition  discover  great  embarrassment.  I  believe  they 
do  not  know  what  to  do.  Some  of  them,  I  am  told,  have 
said  that  they  will  not  vote  against  it.  The  decision  of 
Hamptshire  and  Virginia  we  are  flattering  ourselves  will  be 
favorable,  and  that  they  will  give  energy  to  the  debate  on 
one  side  and  confusion  if  not  absolute  despair  to  the  other 
side. 

Many  years  after,  in  an  address  delivered  before  the 
Law  Association  of  the  City  of  New  York,  October  21, 
1836,  he  thus  alluded  to  this  important  historic  gather- 
ing: "  The  intense  interest  with  which  the  meeting  of 
the  convention  was  anticipated  and  regarded  can 
hardly  be  conceived  at  this  day,  and,  much  less,  ade- 
quately described.  I  was  enabled  and  induced  to 
attend  the  convention  as  a  spectator,  daily  and  steadily 
during  the  entire  six  weeks  of  the  session." 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  31 

Of  the  opposition,  Governor  George  Clinton  was 
recognized  as  the  leader.  His  chief  opponent  was 
Alexander  Hamilton,  for  whom  young  Kent  conceived 
an  admiration  which  was  deep  and  lasting.  He  fol- 
lowed, with  the  utmost  eagerness,  the  arguments  of 
this  brilliant  statesman.  Hamilton,  he  perceived, 
"  generally  spoke  with  great  earnestness  and  energy, 
and  with  considerable,  and  sometimes  vehement,  ges- 
ture. His  language  was  clear,  nervous,  and  classical. 
He  went  to  the  foundation  and  reason  of  every  doc- 
trine which  he  examined,  and  he  brought  to  the  de- 
bate a  mind  richly  adorned  with  all  the  learning  that 
was  applicable." 

Here  it  will  be  interesting  to  quote  further  from  this 
address.  Chancellor  Kent's  characterizations  of  the 
two  men  who  were,  at  this  period,  at  the  zenith  of 
their  powers,  and  whose  names  are  indissolubly  linked 
together,  in  the  history  of  our  country,  by  the  tragedy 
of  fate. 

"After  the  peace  of  1783,"  said  the  Chancellor,  "a 
few  gentlemen  of  the  colonial  school  resumed  their 
ancient  practice  ;  but  the  Bar  was  chiefly  supplied  by 
a  number  of  ambitious  and  high-spirited  young  men, 
who  had  returned  from  the  field  of  arms  with  honor- 
able distinction,  and  by  extraordinary  application,  they 
soon  became  qualified  to  commence  their  career  at 
the  Bar  with  distinguished  reputation.  .  .  .  Colonel 
Burr  was  acute,  quick,  terse,  polished,  sententious, 
and  sometimes  sarcastic  in  his  forensic  discussions. 
He  seemed  to  disdain  illustration  and  expansion, 
and  confined  himself  with  stringency  to  the  point  in 
debate.  .  .  .  But    among    all    his   brethren    Colonel 


32  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

Hamilton  was  indisputably  pre-eminent.  This  was 
universally  conceded.  He  rose  at  once  to  the 
loftiest  heights  of  professional  eminence  by  his  pro- 
found penetration,  his  power  of  analysis,  the  com- 
prehensive grasp  and  strength  of  his  understanding, 
and  the  firmness,  frankness,  and  integrity  of  his 
character." 

So  long  as  Alexander  Hamilton  lived,  Mr.  Kent, 
whether  as  the  humble  law  student  at  Poughkeepsie, 
or  as  a  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  his  native 
State,  entertained  for  him  the  highest  regard  and 
admiration.  Hamilton  was  Mr.  Kent's  senior  by 
about  seven  years,  and  it  was  but  natural  that  the 
rising  young  lawyer  should  have  sought  the  friend- 
ship of  so  distinguished  a  soldier  and  statesman. 

Upon  the  elevation  of  Mr.  Kent  to  the  bench  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  as  was  the  custom  of  the  day, 
the  judge,  together  with  many  of  the  lawyers,  rode 
the  circuit  together,  in  which  journeys  intimacy 
would  quickly  ripen,  under  the  stress  of  the  hard- 
ships of  travel.  Many  and  delightful  must  have  been 
the  gatherings  about  the  hospitable  board  of  the  inn, 
at  which  the  homely  fare  and  rude  hospitality  of  the 
innkeeper  were  dispensed  for  judge,  la\vyer,  and  client 
alike ;  and  many  reminiscences  of  joyous  timxs  and 
hearty  discussion  must  have  clustered  about  those 
meetings,  when  battles  were  fought  over  again,  and 
anecdotes  of  "circuit"  freely  discussed. 

Such  an  intimacy  can  now  scarcely  be  appreciated, 
and  the  friendly,  anxious  interest  with  which  the 
members  of  these  gatherings  regarded  each  other 
may  be  illustrated  by  the  following  incident. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  33 

On  one  of  the  circuits,  upon  which  Judge  Kent 
and  General  Hamilton  were  together,  the  judge  had 
retired  early,  alleging  some  slight  indisposition,  and 
the  party  broke  up,  perhaps  a  little  earlier  than  was 
its  wont,  being  deprived  of  its  chief  The  night  was 
cold  and  tempestuous,  and  the  kindly  nature  of 
Hamilton  was  evidently  disturbed  by  the  indisposi- 
tion of  his  friend.  On  his  retiring,  he  entered  Judge 
Kent's  room  armed  with  an  extra  blanket,  which  he 
insisted  on  tucking  carefully  about  the  recumbent 
figure,  saying :  "  Sleep  warm,  little  Judge,  and  get 
well.  What  should  we  do  if  anything  should  happen 
to  you  ?  " 

In  a  bound  volume  of  newspapers  in  Chancellor 
Kent's  library,  which  contain  all  the  published  ac- 
counts of  the  death  of  Hamilton  and  of  the  duel  wnth 
Burr,  the  Chancellor  noted  only  this  simple  memo- 
randum :  "  General  Hamilton  killed  in  a  duel  with 
Col.  Burr."  Only  this  brief  reference  to  that  tragic 
event  has  been  found  among  Chancellor  Kent's 
papers,  —  a  circumstance  which  is  regarded  as  some- 
what remarkable,  since  the  cause  of  the  duel  was  un- 
doubtedly a  conversation  bet\veen  General  Hamilton 
and  Judge  Kent,  as  fully  appears  in  the  correspond- 
ence published  at  the  time.  The  bitterness  which  had 
been  growing  in  the  personal  relations  of  General 
Hamilton  and  Colonel  Burr  came  to  a  head  in  June, 
1804,  when  Colonel  Burr  demanded  an  explanation 
for  a  statement  contained  in  a  letter  signed  "  Doctor 
Charles  D.  Cooper,"  in  which  it  is  stated  that  "  Gen- 
eral Hamilton  and  Judge  Kent  have  declared,  in  sub- 
stance,  that  they  looked    upon   Mr.  Burr   to    be  a 

3 


34  MEMOIRS   OF    CHANCELLOR   KENT 

dangerous  man,  and  one  who  ought  not  to  be  trusted 
with  the  reins  of  government." 

Hamilton,  in  his  reply,  attempted  to  evade  the 
issue  which  Burr  would  press  upon  him,  and  upon 
which  Burr  insisted  in  no  very  courteous  manner. 
In  the  interview  and  consultations  and  letters  which 
followed,  it  is  evident  that,  without  receding  from  the 
position  in  which  he  unfortunately  found  himself, 
Hamilton  never  for  an  instant  attempted  to  shift  the 
blame  from  his  shoulders  to  that  of  Judge  Kent, 
who,  it  cannot  be  denied,  was  equally  responsible 
with  General  Hamilton  for  the  expression  of  opinion. 
During  this  time  Judge  Kent  was  at  Albany,  or  its 
vicinity,  attending  to  the  duties  of  his  professional 
position,  and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  he 
had  no  knowledge  of  the  transactions,  or  of  the  claims 
made  by  Burr,  until  after  the  duel.^ 

In  the  collection  of  newspapers  of  July  and  August, 
1804,  the  full  account  of  all  transactions  and  proceed- 
ings, so  far  as  they  were  known  to  the  public,  are 
fully  detailed,  and  in  some  of  them  are  sketches  of 
the  life  and  writings  of  General  Hamilton,  which,  al- 
though unsigned,  bear  strong  internal  evidence  of 
having  been  from  the  pen  of  Judge  Kent.  Endorsed 
on  the  fly-leaf  of  this  volume  of  newspapers  is  found 
a  sketch  of  Burr's  life  from  Judge  Kent's  pen  :  — 

"  The  melancholy  instability  of  human  influence 
and  popularity  is  strongly  exemplified  in  the  case  of 
Colonel  Burr,  who  in  March,  1804,  was  a  candidate 

*  The  duel  occurred  July  ii,  1S04,  the  same  day  that  the  Commis- 
sion of  Judge  Kent,  as  Chief-Justice,  reached  the  Secretary  of  State's 
Office. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         35 

for  Governor  in  the  State  of  New  York,  and  generally 
and  zealously  supported  by  the  Federalists ;  and  in 
1807  his  fall  and  disgrace  are  sufficiently  exempHfied 
by  the  publication  of  an  extract  stating  his  passage 
through  Fredericksburgh  on  March  26  under  a  guard 
of  soldiers.  In  the  summer  of  1807  (only  three  years 
after  the  duel)  he  was  indicted  and  tried  for  high 
treason  at  Richmond,  in  Virginia,  before  Chief-Justice 
Marshall,  and  acquitted,  for  that  the  crime  (if  any)  was 
not  committed  in  Virginia.  Colonel  Burr  was  then 
recognized  to  appear  at  the  circuit  in  Ohio  on  a 
charge  of  misdemeanor.  He  did  not  appear,  but 
forfeited  his  recognizance,  and,  after  wandering  for 
a  time  incognito,  he  in  the  month  of  June,  1808, 
embarked  in  a  British  packet,  off  Sandy  Hook,  for 
England. 

"  In  April,  1809,  Aaron  Burr  resided  in  London  in 
obscurity  and  poverty,  and,  upon  the  representation 
of  the  minister  of  the  Spanish  Junta,  he  was  ordered 
by  the  British  government  to  leave  the  kingdom. 
He  denied  being  engaged  in  any  enterprise  against 
the  Spanish  government,  declared  that  he  was  too 
poor  to  remove,  and  declared  that  he  was  a  British- 
subject  and  disclaimed  being  an  American  citizen. 
All  would  not  do,  and  he  was  compelled  to  depart 
to  Gothenburg  in  Sweden.  October  15th,  1809,  he 
left  Gothenburg  on  his  return  from  Stockholm  to  Paris, 
by  the  way  of  Copenhagen.  In  the  year  18 10  down  to 
the  summer  of  181 1,  Colonel  Burr  was  in  Paris,  living 
in  obscurity  and  poverty  and  covered  with  spleen, 
melancholy,  and  disgrace.  He  lodged  in  an  upper 
story  of  some  common  hotel  in  an  obscure  street, 


36  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR    KENT 

was  very  meanly  clad,  and  scarcely  commanded  the 
comforts  of  life.  In  August,  1812,  Colonel  Burr  ap- 
peared in  the  '  Supreme  Court  in  Albany  and  resumed 
business  in  New  York.'  " 

Before  closing  this  digression,  the  following  story, 
current  in  family  traditions,  is  deserving  of  place. 
Mr.  Kent,  although  in  early  life  a  supporter  and 
believer  in  Burr,  never  forgave  him  for  the  death  of 
General  Hamilton,  and  always  asserted  his  willingness 
to  maintain  all  that  he  and  General  Hamilton  had 
said,  which  had  led  to  the  celebrated  duel.  Chancing 
one  day,  sometime  after  Burr's  return,  to  see  him 
in  Nassau  Street,  in  New  York,  although  on  the  op- 
posite side  of  the  street,  the  Chancellor  could  not 
restrain  his  impetuosity,  but  rushing  across  shook 
his  cane  in  Burr's  face  and  exclaimed,  with  a  voice 
choked  with  passion,  "  You  are  a  scoundrel,  sir !  —  a 
scoundrel !  "  Burr  flushed  at  the  epithet,  and  was 
about  to  make  a  hasty  answer ;  but  time  and  misfor- 
tune had  dulled  the  keenness  of  his  temper;  and, 
checking  himself,  as  he  paused  to  consider  the  age 
and  dignity  of  his  adversary,  he  contented  himself 
with  raising  his  hat,  and,  making  a  sweeping  bow, 
exclaimed,  "  The  opinions  of  the  learned  Chancellor 
are  always  entitled  to  the  highest  consideration,"  He 
then  passed  on,  leaving  the  Chancellor  somewhat  sur- 
prised and  mortified. 

In  dismissing  the  episode  of  the  friendship  of  James 
Kent  and  Alexander  Hamilton,  it  should  be  added 
that  the  latter  excelled  in  the  knowledge  of  French 
literature,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  attention  of  his 
younger  friend  was  thus  first  directed  to  the  study  of 


MEMOIRS   OF    CHANCELLOR   KENT  37 

the  French  jurists,  a  study  from  which  he  derived 
important  and  lasting  benefit. 

In  returning  to  the  narrative  of  the  early  profes- 
sional life  of  James  Kent,  and  in  studying  this  era  in 
his  career,  one  cannot  resist  the  impression  that  it 
was  his  close  attendance  upon,  and  his  deep  interest 
in,  the  deliberations  of  this  convention  that  impressed 
upon  his  mind  an  interest  in  political  affairs.  Less 
than  two  years  after  its  close  James  Kent  made  his 
entrance  upon  public  life.  On  the  26th  of  May,  1790, 
he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  New  York  Assembly 
for  Dutchess  County.  At  this  time  was  begun  an 
intimate  correspondence  with  his  brother,  Moss  Kent, 
a  correspondence  which  was  continued  until  the 
time  when,  many  years  after,  it  was  interrupted  by 
death. 

Moss  Kent  was  his  brother's  junior  by  a  little  over 
two  years,  having  been  born  April  3,  1766.  The 
brothers  were  devotedly  attached  to  each  other,  and, 
although  they  resided  for  many  years  in  different 
parts  of  the  country,  nothing  could  exceed  the  de- 
voted tenderness  of  their  letters  and  their  constant 
attention  to  each  other.  The  character  of  Moss  Kent 
was  by  no  means  as  powerful  and  energetic  as  that  of 
his  more  celebrated  brother ;  still,  he  played  his  part 
in  the  political  history  of  his  country  with  credit  to 
himself  and  his  family.  He  never  married,  the  male 
line  of  this  branch  of  the  Kent  family  being  derived 
only  through  James  Kent. 

There  is  nothing  in  this  correspondence  nor  in  his 
letters  to  his  brother-in-law,  Theodorus  Bailey,  that 
indicates  that  James  Kent  was  particularly  pleased  at 


[■i  -i  2 


38         MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

his  election  to  office ;  on  the  contrary,  he  seems  to 
have  begrudged  the  time  it  took  and  the  restriction 
placed  upon  his  leisure  and  the  pleasures  of  study 
and  literary  pursuits.  He  writes  of  the  social  life  in 
New  York,  where  the  Assembly  then  convened,  a 
life  which  was  remarkable  for  its  brilliancy,  and  yet, 
although  a  new  experience,  it  does  not  appear  to 
have  had  decided  charms  for  him.  "  Dinners  mul- 
tiply upon  me,"  he  writes  to  Mr.  Bailey,  "  like  the 
hydra's  head.  I  am  engaged  to-day.  I  have  dined 
already  with  Burr  and  N.  Lawrence.  Hughes  is  pre- 
paring me  for  dinner  at  J.  Ogden  Hoffman's."  And 
again  :  "  I  conceive  hospitality  and  politeness  as  char- 
acteristic virtues  of  this  city.  I  dined  on  Friday  with 
Mrs.  King.  I  breakfasted  on  Saturday  with  Mr.  Burr, 
and  dined  the  same  day,  or  yesterday,  with  Macomb, 
who  is  a  very  clever,  plain  man,  and  lives  in  a  house 
the  most  splendid  I  ever  saw  in  its  structure  and 
furniture." 

The  interest  of  this  legislative  session  was  largely 
centered  on  the  election  of  a  United  States  Senator 
to  fill  the  vacancy  caused  by  the  expiration  of  the 
term  of  General  Schuyler,  on  March  4,  1791.  The 
canvass,  in  which  General  Schuyler  and  Mr.  Burr 
were  opponents,  was  exceedingly  bitter,  and  resulted 
in  the  election  of  Mr.  Burr.  The  defeat  of  the 
former  was  attributed  partly  to  the  unprepossessing 
austerity  of  General  Schuyler's  manner,  and  partly  to 
the  influence  which  was  supposed  to  be  exerted  over 
him  by  General  Hamilton  and  the  ultra  wing  of  the 
Federal  party.^     Mr.  Kent's  record  of  this  memorable 

1  Vide  Jenkins"  Political  History,  p.  65. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  39 

canvass  and  of  its  result  is  found  in  his  letters  to  Mr. 
Bailey.     Under  date  of  January  16,  1791,  he  writes: 

This  week  we  expect  to  choose  the  Congressional 
Senator.  It  will  lie  between  Schuyler  and  Burr.  The 
event  is  very  dubious,  and,  as  far  as  I  can  judge,  their  inter- 
ests are  nearly  balanced.  It  will  be  in  some  measure  a 
question  of  Northern  and  Southern  interests.  I  have  dined 
and  again  breakfasted  with  Mr.  Burr,  and  have  received 
great  attention  and  politeness  from  him.  The  insinuation 
of  his  manners  is  equal  to  the  refinement  of  his  taste  and 
the  activity  of  his  mind.  But  I  apprehend  that  I  shall 
vote  differently  from  what  you  would  wish.  My  com- 
panion. Colonel  Van  Ness,  and  I,  tho'  we  harmonize  in  every 
other  point,  will  vote  opposite  to  each  other  on  this  occa- 
sion. I  take  it  for  granted  that  not  a  single  member  from 
the  middle  district,  in  either  House,  wiU  vote  with  me  but 
McBarker.  I  believe  you  may  depend  on  this  calculation. 
I  rather  think  things  look  auspicious  for  Mr.  Burr.  I  shall 
not  be  grieved  either  way.  But  I  have  made  up  my  mind 
as  to  the  prudence  and  expediency  and  political  wisdom  of 
the  measure,  and  I  conceive  my  moral  reputation  would  re- 
quire me  to  adhere  to  those  determinations  with  firmness. 

On  the  27th  of  January,  1791,  he  again  writes  to 
Mr.  Bailey:  — 

You  have  heard  of  Mr.  Burr's  election.  I  congratulate 
you  because  I  know  it  is  agreeable  to  your  wishes.  I  was 
of  the  minority.  The  objection  of  Schuyler's  being  related 
to  the  Secretary  had  weight  with  me,  and  I  should  have 
preferred  another  man  equally  attached  to  the  administration 
of  the  government,  if  we  could  have  found  him,  and  could 
have  united  on  him.  The  objection,  however,  is  by  no  means 
so  strong  as  was  that  to  Doctor  Tappen,  because  the  coun- 
cil  of  appointment   is   so  small  that  one  individual  is  of 


40         MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

great  consequence,  and  because  it  was  created  expressly 
as  a  check  to  the  Governor.  And  it  is  only  a  general 
theoretic  maxim  that  the  legislative  and  executive  depart- 
ments should  be  distinct.  They  are  not  perfectly  distinct 
anywhere  in  any  government  in  the  world.  In  this  instance 
the  objection  was  with  me  borne  down  by  opposite  objec- 
tions of  a  more  powerful  nature.  I  saw  the  administration 
of  Hamilton,  which  I  conceive  essential  to  the  prosperity 
of  the  nation,  violently  opposed.  North  Carolina  may  be 
deemed  in  a  state  of  rebellion  ;  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania 
make  the  most  alarming  encroachments,  and  interfere  with 
great  intemperance  in  matters  perfectly  and  exclusively  and 
unequivocally  vested  in  Congress,  and  subject  to  their 
deliberations.  To  send  a  character,  then,  who  has  always 
been  regarded  as  unfriendly  to  the  government  and  its 
administration,  and  who  was  brought  forward  by  persons 
always  hostile  to  it,  and  who  himself  possessed  talents  that 
might  be  exerted  in  a  powerful  degree,  was  with  me  to 
contradict  the  most  obvious  dictates  of  good  policy,  and 
of  faithful  attachment  to  the  success  of  the  Constitution.  I 
therefore  voted  from  the  conviction  of  my  judgment. 

The  matter  of  national  moment,  at  this  time  under 
discussion  in  the  country,  was  the  bill,  introduced 
into  Congress,  to  charter  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States.  "In  1791,  in  most  of  the  States,  a  bank-bill 
had  never  been  seen.  Beyond  the  mountains,  in  the 
districts  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  military  war- 
rants and  guard  certificates,  horses  and  cows,  oxen, 
cow-bells,  and  acres  of  land,  constituted  the  money 
with  which  the  people  paid  their  debts  and  in  which 
they  expressed  their  wealth.  In  western  Penns}d- 
vania  whiskey  was  the  circulating  medium.  In  the 
South,  every  merchant  and  planter  so  fortunate  as  to 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         41 

have  coin  kept  it  securely  locked  in  strong-boxes  in 
his  own  home,  and  when  a  note  was  brought  told 
down  the  joes  and  Spanish  dollars  with  his  own 
hand."^ 

It  was  from  the  anti-Federalists  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  that  the  opposition  to  the  passage 
of  the  bill  came.  It  had  passed  the  Senate,  in 
January,  1791,  v/ith  scarcely  a  dissenting  vote.  In 
the  House,  it  had  already  passed  to  its  third  reading, 
when  a  note  of  opposition  was  sounded  from  the 
delegation  from  South  Carolina.  A  warm  debate 
followed,  which  was  continued  for  a  week,  but  the 
bill  at  length  passed  the  House  by  a  handsome  ma- 
jority. It  was  sent  to  the  President  with  all  possible 
speed,  for  it  was  now  the  eighth  of  February,  and 
Congress  would  rise  on  the  fourth  of  March.  Wash- 
ington withheld  his  signature  until  the  Constitutional 
period  of  ten  days  had  nearly  passed.  Attorney- 
General  Randolph  and  Secretary  of  State  Jefferson 
advised  him  to  return  the  bill  to  Congress  without 
his  signature.  Jefferson,  in  a  written  opinion,  was 
bitter  in  his  opposition;  but  the  influence  of  Hamilton 
prevailed  with  President  Washington,  and  the  bill  be- 
came a  law  Feb.  21,  1791.  Immediately  a  bill  to 
incorporate  a  State  Bank  was  introduced  into  the 
New  York  Assembly.  On  the  27th  of  February, 
1 79 1,  Mr.  Kent,  who  was  an  ardent  Federalist,  wrote 
to  Mr.  Bailey :  — 

The  Bank  Bill  will  be  taken  up  to-morrow,  and  most 
probably  will  be  successful.  The  National  Bank  Bill  has  at 
last  received  the  approbation  of  the  President,  and  new  and 

1  McMaster,  ii.  29. 


42  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

strong  reasons  on  the  ground  of  expediency  now  appear, 
which  have  not  existed  before.  It  is  as  requisite  to  have  a 
State  Bank  to  control  the  influence  of  a  National  Bank  as 
of  a  State  government  to  control  the  influence  of  the  gen- 
eral government.  Besides,  our  money  will  be  carried  to  a 
great  degree  to  Philadelphia,  a  rival  city,  unless  we  incor- 
porate our  bank.  These  reasons  have  determined  Jones 
Lawrence,  John  Smith,  and  some  others  to  favor  the  bill, 
who  are  in  general  opposed  to  the  thing  in  the  abstract. 
I  favor  it  on  both  grounds,  — on  the  ground  of  expediency, 
and  from  a  conviction  of  the  utility  of  banks  on  general  prin- 
ciples. The  writings  of  Adam  Smith,  and  particularly  the 
report  of  the  Secretary,  which  is  drawn  with  his  usual  preci- 
sion and  discernment  (and  which,  by  the  way,  I  recommend 
you  to  buy  as  a  curious  and  ingenious  treatise),  have  served 
to  confirm  my  general  habits  of  thinking  on  the  subject. 

Somewhat  contrary  to  his  wishes  and  expectations, 
Mr.  Kent  was  re-elected  a  member  of  the  Assembly 
for  Dutchess  County  in  May,  1792.  The  position 
which  he  took  in  regard  to  the  contested  returns, 
whereby  Governor  Clinton  was  declared  elected,  and 
Mr.  Jay  was  wrongfully  deprived  of  his  election,  was 
calculated  considerably  to  alienate  him  from  many  of 
his  Democratic  friends  and  family  connections;  and 
his  subsequent  defeat  by  his  brother-in-law  Theodoras 
Bailey,  when  nominated  for  Congress,  was  the  cause 
of  his  removing  from  Poughkeepsie  and  settling  in 
New  York.  The  result  of  this  defeat,  and  of  the 
subsequent  support  of  Mr.  Jay,  into  which  he  en- 
tered with  heart  and  soul,  was  probably  his  appoint- 
ment as  Recorder  a  few  years  later ;  the  first  step  in 
the  judicial  career  which  was  destined  to  render  his 
name   famous.      It  is  doubtful  if,  as  a  politician  or 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         43 

legislator,  his  mind  would  have  found  an  opening 
which  was  suited  to  his  capacity.  His  strong  partisan 
feeling,  quick  and  impatient  temper,  hasty,  energetic, 
and  upright  bearing,  scorned  those  devious  methods 
which  keep  in  action  the  strings  upon  which  hang 
political  preferment,  and  made  the  pursuit  of  politics 
unsuited  to  his  mind  and  method ;  while  the  close 
attention  to  study,  and  the  calm  deliberation  of  the 
judicial  situation,  coupled  with  its  responsibility,  were 
eminently  calculated  to  bring  to  the  front  those  char- 
acteristics which  would  tend  to  polish  and  round  out 
his  character. 

It  was  a  matter  local  in  its  nature,  which  was  con- 
sidered at  this  session  of  the  Assembly,  in  which 
James  Kent  was  most  deeply  interested,  and  in  the 
discussion  of  which  he  bore  a  notable  part.  An  in- 
tense adherent  of  the  Federal  party,  he  had  watched 
the  canvass  preliminary  to  the  gubernatorial  election 
in  New  York  with  an  almost  painful  interest.  At  the 
critical  moment,  when  the  success  of  his  party  hung 
in  the  balance,  he  wrote  to  his  brother :  "  I  am  very 
solicitous  to  hear  of  the  result  of  the  election.  I  shall 
feel  signally  devout  to  Providence  for  his  goodness  if 
he  has  but  permitted  us,  this  time,  to  remove  so  cor- 
rupt a  man  as  Clinton  from  the  administration  of  the 
government."  Governor  Clinton's  opponent  in  this 
closely  contested  election  was  Hon.  John  Jay,  then 
Chief-Justice  of  the  United  States.  He  was  enthusi- 
astically supported  by  Mr.  Kent,  whose  opposition 
to  the  re-election  of  Governor  Clinton,  as  has  been 
seen  by  the  extract  just  quoted,  was  bitterly  intense. 
The  result  was,  to  Mr.  Kent,  a  sad  disappointment. 


44  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

A  letter  to  his  brother,  under  date  of  June  15,  1792, 
details  his  understanding  of  the  affair,  and  is  likewise 
a  rebuke  to  those  who  regard  our  country  as  politi- 
cally debased  in  these  modern  times,  far  below  its 
condition  in  the  days  of  our  fathers :  — 

Jmnes  Kent  to  Moss  Kent,  Jr. 

Dear  Brother,  —  Before  this  reaches  you  the  news  will 
have  arrived  of  the  re-election  of  Governor  Clinton.  This 
event,  tho'  it  would  have  been  melancholy  if  it  had  been 
the  voice  of  the  people,  yet  is  rendered  deeply  afflicting 
from  the  consideration  that  it  takes  place  to  the  violation 
of  law  and  of  justice.  I  apprehend  I  can  give  you  more 
full  information  than  you  can  otherwise  obtain.  The  coun- 
ties of  Clinton,  Otsego,  and  Tioga  were  not  canvassed. 
The  first  was  rejected,  I  believe,  because  D.  Piatt,  who  car- 
ried down  the  votes,  was  not  deputed  in  writing  nor  qualified. 
I  don't  precisely  know  the  ground  on  which  the  votes  of 
Tioga  were  refused ;  but  the  votes  of  Otsego  were  lost  be- 
cause Richard  R.  Smith  was  not  deemed  to  have  been  at  the 
time,  in  contemplation  of  law,  sheriff  of  the  county.  This 
decision  is  repugnant  to  the  clearest  principles  of  law  and 
right.  ...  If  all  the  votes  had  been  canvassed,  Jay  would 
have  been  elected  by  a  majority  of  at  least  400.  What 
indignation  must  it  have  provoked  to  find  then  tlie  People 
deprived  of  their  constitutional  rights  by  the  violence  of 
unprincipled  men. 

The  progress  of  the  business  has  been  this.  The  Senate 
and  Assembly  each  chose  six  canvassers.  The  Senate  did 
as  they  ought  to  do  ;  they  chose  three  friends  to  Jay  :  Jones, 
Roosevelt,  and  Gansevoort ;  and  three  friends  of  Clinton  : 
Gelston,  Joshua  Sands,  and  Tillotson.  The  Assembly  chose 
six  devoted  Clintonians,  to  wit :  Jonathan  N.  Havens,  M. 
Smith,  John  D.  Coe,  Pierre  Van  Cortlandt,  Junior,  Daniel 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  45 

Graham,  and  David  McCarty.  This  I  deem  to  have  been  a 
corrupt  thing  in  the  Assembly.  These  canvassers  form  a 
court  of  the  highest  importance,  a  court  to  decide  on  the 
vahdity  of  elections  without  appeal.  They  ought  at  least  to 
have  been  equally  biassed.  I  believe  a  more  partial  tribunal 
cannot  be  found  in  the  annals  of  freedom.  No  sooner  had 
they  met  than  anonymous  publications  appeared  against  the 
Otsego  votes,  and  indeed  against  all  the  boxes  returned  by 
deputies.  .  .  . 

On  the  final  question  respecting  Otsego  there  were  seven  to 
four.  These  four  have  refused  to  sign  the  certificate  and  have 
protested.  Previous  to  the  decision  the  canvassers  referred 
the  question  to  King  and  Burr,  and  they  differed.  King 
was  for  the  canvassing,  and  Burr  for  rejecting  them.  The 
latter  has  shamefully  prostituted  his  talents  to  serve  a  des- 
perate and  abandoned  party.  He  is  the  only  lawyer  who 
has  publicly  avowed  in  writing  an  opinion  on  that  side.  .  .  . 
But  tho'  most  cruelly  oppressed,  I  know  of  no  constitu- 
tional remedy ;  we  must  submit.  It  is  to  me  a  most  unpal- 
atable cup.  I  have  at  least  as  solid  a  conviction  and  as 
keen  an  indignation  against  the  corrupt  administration  of 
Clinton,  the  corruption  of  his  party,  the  outrage  done  to 
justice,  as  is  compatible  with  a  due  respect  to  order  and 
law. 

If  one  may  judge  from  the  tone  of  Mr.  Kent's  let- 
ters during  the  ensuing  few  months,  the  action  of  the 
board  of  canvassers  met  with  bitter  denunciation  by 
many  throughout  the  State.  "  I  take  it  for  granted," 
he  writes,  "  that  we  must  acquiesce  in  the  decision, 
and  that  no  legal  remedy  can  be  obtained.  The  peo- 
ple, in  their  original  character,  can,  no  doubt,  rectify 
the  grievance,  but  I  don't  see  that  the  ordinary  legis- 
latures have  jurisdiction  over  a  contested  election  to 


46  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

the  chief  magistracy.  The  peace  of  the  community 
requires  an  ultimate  decision  somewhere,  and  if  we 
attempt  to  declare  the  chair  vacant,  we  must  assume 
the  powers  of  the  convention  parliament  in  1688,  and 
if  the  Governor  would  claim  his  office  under  the  cer- 
tificate and  the  law,  I  see  no  peaceable  way  to  accom- 
modate. My  idea  is  that  we  ought,  from  consideration 
of  peace  and  prudence,  to  acquiesce  in  the  authority 
of  the  decision.  It  is  highly  proper,  however,  that 
the  people  should  reprobate  the  atrocious  insult  and 
injury,  and  pursue  with  recrimination  and  punishment 
the  authors  of  the  wrong,  as  far  as  the  law  will  tolerate 
them." 

Later,  he  writes  of  the  passage  of  Mr.  Jay  through 
Poughkeepsie,  on  his  way  to  New  York,  and  of  a  ban- 
quet given  by  his  friends  in  his  honor.  He  has  re- 
considered his  opinion,  as  stated  in  the  epistle  last 
quoted,  and  suggests  a  remedy  for  what  he  regarded 
as  a  gross  wrong. 

James  Kent  to  Moss  Kent,  Jr. 

July  II,  1792. 

I  have,  since  my  last  letter,  revolved  in  my  mind  a  mode 
of  redress  now  in  contemplation,  and  I  warmly  advocate  it. 
It  is  that  a  convention  be  called  under  the  recommendation 
of  our  legislature,  to  take  the  decision  into  review  and  to 
ratify  or  annul  it  and  order  a  new  election,  as  they  shall 
deem  proper.  This  mode  is  wise,  benign,  orderly,  and  re- 
publican, and  no  application  can  be  made  to  it  of  the  harsh 
and  forbidding  name  of  faction  and  sedition.  I  shall  espouse 
it,  and  I  believe  firmly  it  will  succeed.  I  hope  therefore 
what  I  wrote  before  will  be  no  check  to  your  ardent  hopes 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  47 

of  redress.     Be  assured  that  the  atrocious  injury  will  be 
redressed.  .  .  . 

The  appointment  of  Burr  as  one  of  the  judges  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York,  by  Governor  Clin- 
ton, presumably  as  a  reward  for  his  political  services 
in  the  Governor's  behalf  in  the  contest  of  the  canvass- 
ers, filled  Mr.  Kent  with  disgust  and  indignation.  This 
feeling  was  in  nowise  lessened  by  the  fact  that  his  old 
preceptor,  Mr.  Benson,  for  whom  he  always  entertained 
the  highest  admiration,  was  the  unsuccessful  nominee 
in  the  Governor's  council  for  the  position.  "  The  re- 
view of  this  transaction  alone,"  he  wrote,  "  is  enough 
to  make  us  tremble  with  astonishment  at  the  violence 
and  partiality  of  our  administration.  The  Governor 
can,  at  least,  be  said  to  have  faithfully  fulfilled  his 
obligations  to  Burr,  for  his  opinion  to  the  canvassers, 
but  he  has  surpassed  example  in  the  contempt  of 
appearances  and  public  opinion." 

At  the  convening  of  the  Assembly,  in  the  winter  of 
1792,  Mr.  Kent  entered  with  great  ardor  into  the  in- 
vestigation of  the  election  contest.  In  November  of 
that  year  he  wrote  to  his  father.  Moss  Kent,  Senior : 

James  Kent  to  Moss  Kent,  Senior. 

My  dear  Father,  — ...  The  Assembly  have  entered 
seriously  into  the  investigation  of  the  transactions  of  the  last 
canvass.  We  have  examined  the  Secretary  and  his  deputy, 
and  shall  probably  examine  several  other  witnesses.  We  shall 
get  all  the  material  facts  on  the  Journals  so  that  our  constitu- 
ents may  know  the  grounds  of  our  ultimate  decision.  We  shall 
then  attempt  to  carry  some  resolutions  expressive  of  our  dis- 
approbation of  the  business,  and  there  I  believe  the  thing 


48         MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

will  end.  Whether  we  can  carry  anything  is  very  doubtful. 
Nothing  but  the  force  of  opinions  out  of  doors  will  prevail 
on  many  to  go  with  us.  Mr.  Burr  has  taken  great  pains  to 
procure  opinions  in  support  of  his,  and  he  has  obtained 
more  of  Edwards  and  Randolph.  A  number  of  opinions  in 
condemnation  have  also  been  procured  from  very  respect- 
able men.  The  lawyers  in  this  city  have  also  published  a 
very  elaborate  opinion  on  the  subject.  It  is  by  far  the  best 
thing  I  have  seen,  and  I  deem  it  perfectly  conclusive. 

The  friends  of  Judge  Jay  in  the  Assembly  were  not 
successful,  however,  in  reversing  the  decision  of  the 
canvassers,  although  various  expedients  were  tried. 
Of  the  contest,  Mr.  Kent  wrote  to  his  brother: 

Jmnes  Kent  to  Moss  Kent,  Jr. 

The  great  question  which  was  raised  by  the  other  party 
before  we  had  half  finished  the  inquiry  was,  whether  the 
canvassers  were  impeachable.  They  decided  in  the  nega- 
tive. Two  speeches  of  mine  in  favor  of  the  impeachability 
of  the  canvassers  have  been  published  in  the  "  Daily  Adver- 
tiser," and  I  flatter  myself  we  have  suffered  no  disgrace  on 
that  question.  After  the  decision  we  then  contended  that 
the  business  should  be  dismissed,  that  we  had  no  jurisdic- 
tion over  the  conduct  of  men  unless  deduced  from  the 
power  of  impeachment,  and  that  since  they  by  resolution 
referred  the  persons  aggrieved  to  the  courts  of  law,  they 
ought  not  to  prejudge  the  question  by  giving  an  extra-judi- 
cial opinion.  Here  we  failed.  They  first  brought  forward 
a  resolution  that  the  canvassers  were  not  guilty  of  mal  or 
corrupt  conduct.  They  then  changed  that  as  not  being 
favorable  enough  and  substituted  "  no  impropriety."  After 
two  days'  debate  they  grew  ashamed  of  this  and  resorted  to 
"no  mal  or  corrupt  conduct,"  and  that  they  carried,  and  so 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR    KENT  49 

ended  the  business.  Hoffman's  and  my  speeches  on  this 
question  are  also  pubHshed.  Sometime  or  other  I  hope  to 
let  you  see  them. 

The  part  maintained  by  Mr.  Kent  in  these  proceed- 
ings, although  it  could  not  fail  to  draw  attention  to 
his  learning  and  legal  attainments,  deeply  offended 
his  family  and  friends,  who  were  warm  supporters  of 
Governor  Clinton.  The  strong  family  influence  of  the 
Baileys,  through  the  Livingstons,  and  other  kindred 
connections,  made  itself  felt  in  opposition  to  his  further 
political  advance,  by  placing  in  nomination  against 
him,  for  the  office  of  Congressman,  his  brother-in-law, 
Mr.  Theodorus  Bailey.  Mr.  Kent's  nomination  was 
made  while  he  was  in  New  York,  attending  the  session 
of  the  Legislature,  and  it  is  quite  certain  that  he  never 
sought  nor  desired  the  office.  His  failure  at  the  polls, 
at  which  Mr.  Bailey  was  his  successful  opponent,  did 
not  weigh  heavily  upon  his  mind.  To  his  brother  he 
wrote,  March  14,  1793  :  — 

James  Kent  to  Moss  Kent,  Jr. 

Dear  Brother,  —  I  am  extremely  impatient  to  get  rid 
of  this  public  situation  and  to  return  to  the  pure  pleasures  of 
a  domestic  and  literary  life.  Mr.  Bailey  carried  his  election 
by  a  majority  of  132  votes.  The  evil  reports  circulated  on 
the  eve  of  the  election  in  the  newspapers,  relative  to  the 
expense  of  the  inquiry  into  the  canvassers'  conduct,  and  of 
my  capital  agency  in  it,  contributed  greatly  to  this  event. 
Besides,  the  interest  and  exertions  of  Mr.  Bailey,  and  fam- 
ily of  Judge  Piatt,  the  Hoffmans,  etc.,  in  Poughkeepsie,  were 
great.  That  town  never  gave  so  many  votes  before.  Every 
elector  turned  out.     Dowe  had   214   in  that  town  alone. 

4 


50  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

I  am  not  grieved  at  the  result.  My  interest  and  happi- 
ness will  be  promoted  by  it ;  I  only  feel  indignant  at  the 
hypocritical  and  impure  exertions  made  use  of  by  a  profli- 
gate party,  pretending  to  be  real  Republicans  of  the  State. 
We  have,  however,  been  successful  in  the  State  at  large. 
Seven  out  of  ten  are  Jayites  and  Federalists.  I  shall  move 
here  [New  York]  either  in  May  or  July,  and  I  have  confi- 
dence of  meeting  with  success. 

A  few  days  later  he  writes  from  Poughkeepsie :  — 

I  am  busy  in  arrangements  to  move  to  New  York  the 
first  of  May.  I  have  already  sold  my  chaise  and  cow,  and 
am  settling  my  business.  This  town  has  discovered  so  little 
confidence  in  me  on  a  recent  occasion,  and  some  principal 
men,  such  as  Judge  Piatt,  Mr.  G.  Livingston,  and  T.  Bailey, 
have  either  been  instrumental,  or  willingly  connived  in  such 
gross  tales  of  calumny  and  hypocrisy  to  injure  my  reputa- 
tion, that  I  shall  leave  this  place  with  much  less  regret  than 
might  otherwise  have  arisen.  I  feel  strong,  tho'  I  hope 
no  presumptuous  confidence  in  meeting  with  success  in  my 
profession  at  New  York.  If  I  should  fail  eventually,  I  must 
retreat  to  Otsego  and  live  with  you.  .  .  . 

Mr.  Kent's  own  entry  of  these  events,  made  in  his 
"  memoranda,"  a  few  years  later,  and  of  the  occur- 
rences following  his  removal  to  New  York,  is  both 
interesting  and  pathetic. 

"While  I  was  at  New  York  in  1793,"  he  wrote, 
"  attending  to  my  duties  in  the  Assembly,  I  was  nomi- 
nated and  supported  as  a  candidate  for  Congress  ;  but 
my  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Bailey,  was  my  successful 
competitor,  by  a  majority  of  132  votes.  The  partner- 
ship with  Mr.  Livingston  had  by  this  time  become  a 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  51 

heavy  and  mortifying  burden,  and  this  was  my  princi- 
pal inducement  to  quit  Poughkeepsie  and  remove  to 
New  York,  the  last  of  April,  1793.  I  carried  with 
me  to  New  York  my  wife,  then  in  the  splendor  of 
her  personal  accomplishments  ;  a  lovely  and  precious 
little  daughter  of  upwards  of  two  years  of  age,  and 
whose  great  debility  and  sickness  during  the  summer 
of  1792  had  riveted  the  affections  and  awakened  the 
most  painful  anxieties  of  her  parents ;  a  small,  well- 
chosen  library,  scanty  furniture,  and  ;;^  100  in  cash; 
leaving  real  property  behind  to  the  value  of  i^200; 
and  this  was  the  total  result  of  my  eight  years'  settle- 
ment at  Poughkeepsie. 

"  But  I  owed  nothing  and  came  to  the  city  with  good 
character  and  with  a  scholar's  reputation.  My  news- 
paper writings  and  speeches  in  the  Assembly  had 
given  me  some  notoriety.  I  do  not  believe  any 
human  being  ever  lived  with  more  pure  and  perfect 
domestic  repose  and  simplicity  and  happiness  than 
I  did  for  these  eight  years." 

Dr.  Edward  Jenner,  in  England,  was  even  then 
pursuing  his  series  of  investigations,  which  resulted  a 
few  years  later  in  his  beneficent  discovery,  by  which 
mankind  has  been  delivered  from  its  greatest  scourge. 
At  this  time,  however,  thoughtful  and  judicious  per- 
sons sought  to  avert  its  most  hideous  results,  by 
resort  to  the  heroic  method  of  inoculation.  So  fear- 
ful were  her  parents  that  this  much  loved  child  might 
become  a  victim  to  this  dread  disease  that  it  was 
determined  to  resort  to  this  device.  The  result  may 
best  he  told  in  the  Chancellor's  own  words:  — 

"  Upon  my  arrival  at  New  York  I  was  under  the 


52  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

necessity  of  inoculating  my  daughter  for  the  small- 
pox, and  she  had  scarcely  recovered  when  she  was 
unexpectedly  swept  off  by  a  fever  on  the  26th  of 
May,  1793.  No  event  in  my  life  had  ever  before 
taught  me  the  genuine  agonies  of  grief.  My  whole 
soul  seemed  to  be  buried  in  my  child.  I  loved  it 
with  excessive  tenderness.  I  think  of  the  lovely  babe 
to  this  day  with  pathetic  and  melancholy  emotions. 
My  excellent  and  most  interesting  wife  divided  with 
me  all  the  pain  and  anxiety  of  our  disconsolate 
condition." 

On  his  removal  to  New  York  Mr.  Kent  was  ad- 
mitted, May  18,  1793,  attorney  and  counsellor  in  the 
Mayor's  Court,  his  commission  being  signed  by 
Richard  Varrick,  then  mayor.  It  was  at  that  time, 
and  continued  for  some  years  to  be  the  practice  to 
admit  to  each  court  separately,  the  younger  members 
of  the  Bar  being  admitted  from  time  to  time,  on 
motion,  as  their  business  required,  the  fees  payable 
on  admission  being  a  matter  of  considerable  impor- 
tance to  the  struggling  practitioner. 

"  My  first  summer  in  New  York,"  continued  the 
Chancellor's  memoranda,  "  was  very  gloomy.  I  was 
poor  and  had  but  little  business  and  lived  in  a  narrow, 
dirty  street,  and  a  thousand  times  recalled  with  eager- 
ness the  country  beauties  and  domestic  pleasures  of 
the  preceding  year.  In  November,  1 793,  my  father  was 
brought  to  my  house  by  my  brother.  He  was  then 
bedridden  with  the  palsy,  and,  to  add  to  my  uneasi- 
ness, my  brother  then  informed  me  of  his  failure  in 
trade  in  Otsego  County,  and  of  the  apprehensions  of 
his  ruin." 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         53 

In  the  darkest  period  of  this  year,  when  money  was 
at  the  lowest  ebb,  and  the  hope  of  obtaining  any  faint 
indeed,  Mrs.  Kent  was  appalled  one  morning  by  a 
wheel-barrow  stopping  at  the  door,  literally  full  of 
books.  They  were  the  works  of  De  Thou,  the  French 
jurist,  for  which  her  husband,  in  an  enthusiastic  and 
reckless  hour,  had  given  an  order  some  months 
before.  The  bill  presented  with  the  books  was  ^40 ! 
Years  afterwards,  they  used  to  recall  with  amusement 
the  terrified  looks  of  the  busy  housekeeper,  which,  in 
this  instance,  were  reflected  by  her  husband.  He 
extricated  himself  from  his  difficulty  with  unusual 
adroitness.  He  met  in  the  street  his  friend  Edward 
Livingston,  the  well  known  author  of  the  Louisiana 
Code  of  Laws,  with  whom  he  preserved  an  intimate 
acquaintance  during  a  long  life.  Mr.  Livingston  was 
then  a  trustee  of  the  Society  Library.  "  Are  you  aware, 
Livingston,"  asked  Mr.  Kent,  "  that  you  have  not  in 
the  Society  Library  any  of  the  works  of  the  great 
Thuamus?"  However  familiar  Mr.  Livingston  may 
subsequently  have  become  with  the  historians  and 
civilians  of  the  Continent,  he  was  obviously  not  very 
clear  as  to  the  identity  of  this  Thuamus,  though  he 
agreed  with  great  gravity  that  the  absence  of  his 
works  caused  a  sad  chasm  in  the  shelves  of  the  library. 
Mr.  Kent  informed  him  that  a  copy  could  be  pro- 
cured in  New  York,  and  that  he  would  even  charge 
himself  with  the  office  of  sending  it  to  the  library. 
The  ofTer  was  gratefully  accepted.  Another  wheel- 
barrow was  speedily  obtained,  the  works  of  the  great 
Thuamus  (with  the  bill)  were  carried  to  the  library ; 
and  debt  went  away  from,  and  smiles  again  lighted 


54  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

up,  the  humble  but  happy  household  of  Marketfield 
Street. 

This  was  the  period  of  low  tide  in  the  fortunes  of 
James  Kent.  He  greatly  missed  the  pleasures  and 
beauties  of  country  life,  and  so  reduced  did  he  be- 
come in  his  circumstances  that  pecuniary  assistance 
rendered  by  his  brother  was  received  with  the  deep- 
est gratitude.  "  Nothing,"  he  wrote  in  acknowledg- 
ment, "  could  have  come  more  seasonably.  My  great 
and  uncommon  expenses  since  I  have  been  here,  and 
the  total  stop  to  business  which  my  removal  occa- 
sioned, rendered  me  quite  dependent.  .  .  .  Your  letter 
gave  me  great  satisfaction  and  consolation.  I  place 
every  reliance  on  your  love  and  attachment,  I  hope 
I  shall  be  able  to  prosper  myself.  Tho'  my  afflictions 
have  been  most  painful  and  my  spirits  depressed, 
I  have  entered  with  determined  zeal  on  the  studies  of 
my  profession,  and  I  am  sure  it  will  be  in  my  power 
to  merit,  if  I  cannot  attain,  the  highest  honors  of  the 
Bar." 

Again,  in  October,  1793,  he  wrote  to  his  brother: 

James  Kent  to  Moss  Kent,  Jr. 

...  I  am  very  healthy,  but  my  business  comes  on 
slowly  and  living  is  very  high.  The  beef  in  market  is 
7^.,  8^/.,  and  9^/.  a  pound,  and  other  things  in  proportion. 
But  the  most  serious  of  all  our  expenses  is  wood.  It  is 
now  i8j-.  a  load  at  the  wharf,  and  four  loads  make  a  cord. 
The  expense  of  riding,  sawing,  etc.,  is  about  jx. ;  so  that 
every  load  of  nut  wood,  which  is  the  only  wood  brought 
here  that  will  burn,  costs  me  2\s.  a  load.  This  extraordinary 
dearness  of  wood  is  owing  partly  to  the  great  influx  of  peo- 
ple from  the  West  Indies,  etc.,  but  principally  because  last 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         55 

winter  was  open,  and  there  was  no  sledding  to  bring  the 
wood  down  to  the  landings  up  the  river,  I  endeavor  to 
keep  up  my  spirits  all  I  can,  but  low  spirits  and  discourage- 
ments frequently  press  so  hard  upon  me  as  to  retard  my 
studies.  However,  I  will  try  a  year  or  two  yet,  and  if  it 
will  not  do  here,  I  must  go  into  the  woods  somewhere,  as 
you  have  done. 

But  brighter  days  were  soon  to  dawn  for  Mr.  Kent 
and  his  devoted  wife.  At  a  meeting  of  the  trustees  of 
Columbia  College,  held  at  the  house  of  John  Sim.mons, 
innkeeper,  in  the  city  of  New  York,  on  Monday,  the 
2d  of  December,  1 793,  it  was  resolved  that  a  professor- 
ship of  Law  be  established  in  Columbia  College,  with 
a  salary  of  ^200  per  annum,  to  be  paid  out  of  the 
funds  allowed  this  college  by  the  Legislature,  Dr. 
Bard  then  nominated  James  Kent,  Esquire,  for  the 
Professor  of  Law.  At  a  subsequent  meeting  of  the 
trustees  held  on  Tuesday,  the  24th  of  December, 
1793,  he  was  unanimously  elected. 

A  retrospect  of  his  early  professional  life,  written 
by  Chancellor  Kent,  for  the  information  of  his  chil- 
dren and  grandchildren,  in  March,  1847,  gives  an 
excellent  idea,  not  only  of  his  own  days  of  small 
things,  but  of  the  jurisprudence  of  our  country  a 
century  ago,  "  When  settled  as  a  lawyer  in  Pough- 
keepsie  in  1785,"  he  wrote,  "  I  remained  in  practice 
until  I  removed  to  New  York  in  May,  1793.  I  was 
then  a  young  and  married  housekeeper,  I  owned 
one  acre  of  ground  and  fitted  up,  in  neat  style  for 
that  day,  a  snug  and  endearing  little  cottage,  and  I 
cultivated  an  excellent  garden,  and  my  income  by 
practice  did   not  reach  on   an  average   above   ^500 


56         MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

a  year.  My  wife  was  my  young  housekeeper,  with 
only  a  servant  girl  for  cook,  and  everything  else  and 
all  my  furniture  might  have  cost  about  ^250;  but 
we  lived  as  creditably  and  attractively  as  any  per- 
sons in  the  village.  My  brother  was  my  inmate  and 
helpmate  for  the  three  years  that  he  was  a  clerk  in 
my  office.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1789, 
and  went  and  settled  on  the  Mohawk,  in  the  town 
of  Canajoharie.  After  he  left  me.  Smith  Thompson 
took  his  place  as  my  clerk,  and  served  me  faith- 
fully for  three  years,  or  until  about  the  time  I 
removed  to  New  York,  He  had  been  nominally 
educated  at  Princeton  College,  and  he  kept  an  Eng- 
lish school  at  Poughkeepsie  before  he  joined  my 
office.  He  was  a  plain,  modest,  sensible,  ignorant 
young  man,  with  narrow  views  and  anti-Federal  poli- 
tics. His  mind  did  not  expand,  and  his  principles 
became  liberal  but  very  slowly.  The  Federal  Con- 
vention, and  the  new  Constitution,  and  the  discussions 
therein,  gave  amazing  impulse  to  my  feelings,  and 
with  an  intensity  of  ardor  I  embarked  in  Federal 
politics,  and  quite  gained  an  ascendant  in  the  local 
proceedings  and  discussions.  I  had  General  Bailey, 
who  lived  next  door  to  me,  and  my  partner  G. 
Livingston,  and  Thompson  my  clerk,  as  controversial 
antagonists,  and  Judge  Benson,  then  living  at  Pough- 
keepsie, as  my  patron  and  coadjutor.  Jacob  RadclifT, 
who  studied  with  Judge  Benson  and  settled  as  a  law- 
yer at  Red  Hook,  was  a  correct,  sensible,  and  re- 
spectable young  lawyer,  and  he  and  I  became  great 
political  and  professional  friends;  and  this  lasted 
until  after  he  became  a  judge.     There  were  no  other 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         57 

lawyers  from  1789  to  1793,  in  Dutchess  County,  that 
were  worth  notice.  Silas  Marsh  was  only  a  County 
Court  lawyer  and  quite  illiterate,  but  a  man  of  wit, 
and  irregularity,  and  poverty;  and  he  tormented  me 
exceedingly,  he  was  so  dilatory  and  ignorant  in  his 
County  Court  practice.  I  did  very  little  business  in 
the  Supreme  Court  while  I  remained  at  Poughkeepsie. 
My  practice  was  almost  confined  to  County  Court 
practice,  and  to  issuing  writs  to  collect  debts,  and  to 
entering  up  judgments  in  the  Supreme  Court.  I  was 
not  admitted  into  the  Court  of  Chancery  until  after  I 
removed  to  New  York.  My  great  occupation  for  the 
eight  years  of  my  settlement  at  Poughkeepsie  was 
studying  the  classics,  attending  to  quite  inconsider- 
able county  practice  and  conveyancing,  and  studying 
Federal  politics,  and  reading  all  the  histories  and 
travels  and  poetry  that  I  could  lay  my  hands  on,  and 
in  devoting  my  leisure  to  my  garden,  to  my  lovely 
wife,  and  to  the  nurturing  and  tending  the  blessed 
little  daughter  that  I  had  at  Poughkeepsie,  and  car- 
ried with  her  mother  to  New  York  in  1793,  where 
she  died  within  four  weeks  after  I  got  there,  to  my 
inexpressible  grief  Hamilton  became  my  idol  very 
early  in  life.  His  two  letters  of  Phocion  were  pub- 
lished in  1784,  against  the  intemperance  of  the  Whigs 
in  trying  to  persecute  the  Tories,  contrary  to  the  spirit 
of  the  treaty  of  1783.  They  were  much  admired,  and 
frustrated  the  puny  pamphlet  of  Dr.  Ledyard  and  the 
illiberal  and  narrow  construction  given  to  the  treaty 
by  the  anti-Federal  Whigs  of  that  day. 

"  It  was  a  great  blessing  to  me  at  Poughkeepsie  to 
live  adjoining  Theodorus  Bailey,  for  he  had   much 


58  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

better  country  patronage  and  practice,  and  he  got  an 
ambitious  desire  to  buy  books,  and  such  as  I  recom- 
mended, and  I,  in  that  way,  got  access  to  the  best 
EngHsh  authors  and  translations.  While  at  Pough- 
keepsie  my  Federal  celebrity  procured  my  acquaint- 
ance and  friendship  with  several  distinguished  men  in 
New  York,  such  as  Chief-Justice  Jay,  Judge  Hobart, 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  Colonel  Troup  and  Edward 
Livingston.  It  was  the  character  I  had  insensibly  ac- 
quired as  a  scholar  and  a  Federalist  and  a  presumed 
(though  it  was  not  true)  well-read  lav.yer  that  the 
very  first  year  that  I  removed  to  New  York  I  was 
appointed  a  Professor  of  Law  in  Columbia  College. 
The  influence  of  Dr.  S.  Bard,  of  Judge  Hobart,  of 
B.  Livingston,  Edward  Livingston,  and  probably  of 
Chief-Justice  Jay,  procured  me  the  appointment. 

"The  progress  of  jurisprudence  was  nothing  in  this 
State  (New  York)  prior  to  the  year  1793.  There 
were  no  decisions  of  any  of  the  courts  published. 
There  were  none  that  contained  any  investigation. 
In  the  city  of  New  York,  Hamilton,  Harrison,  Burr, 
Cozine,  and  perhaps  John  Lawrence  and  old  Samuel 
Jones  (then  deemed  and  known  as  the  oracle  of  the 
law)  began  to  introduce  the  knowledge  and  cultiva- 
tion of  the  law,  which  was  confined  of  course  to  Coke, 
Littleton,  and  the  reporters,  down  to  Burrow.  Hamil- 
ton brought  a  writ  of  right  in  a  Waddell  cause  in  this 
city  (New  York)  which  made  quite  a  sensation  and 
created  much  puzzle  in  the  courts.  The  judges  of 
the  Supreme  Court  (Morris,  Yates,  and  Hobart)  were 
very  illiterate  as  lawyers,  and  the  addition  of  John 
Lansing,  in    1790,  was  supposed   to  be  a   great  im- 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         59 

provement  to  the  bench,  merely  because  he  appeared 
to  have  studied  more  the  King's  Bench  Practice,  and 
was  more  dihgent,  exact,  and  formal  in  attending  to 
cases  and  enforcing  rules  of  practice.  The  country- 
Circuit  Courts  were  chiefly  occupied  in  plain  eject- 
ment suits  and  in  trying  criminals  in  the  Courts  of 
Oyer  and  Terminer.  In  short,  our  jurisprudence  was 
a  blank  when  Hamilton  and  Harrison  first  began  by 
their  forensic  discussions  to  introduce  principles  and 
to  pour  light  and  learning  upon  the  science  of  law." 


6o         MEMOIRS  OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 


III 


DURING  December,  1793,  and  January,  1794, 
Mr,  Kent  made  a  journey  from  New  York 
to  Washington,  on  the  Potomac,  as  the  post  road 
runs,  a  distance  of  two  hundred  and  fifty-seven  miles, 
in  the  pubHc  stage,  accompanied  by  Mr.  James  Green- 
leaf  and  Mr.  Charles  Lagarenne,  a  Frenchman,  In  a 
letter  to  his  brother,  this  tour  is  minutely  described. 
Especially  interesting  is  his  narrative  of  his  visit  at 
Philadelphia,  then  the  seat  of  the  Federal  government. 

James  Kent  to  Moss  Kent,  Jr. 

.  .  .  The  Philadelphians  have  not  great  gayety  in  their 
dress.  The  Quakers,  who  compose  a  large  part  of  the  city, 
have  probably  given  a  tincture  to  the  manners.  Their 
obstinacy  and  bigotry  were  very  manifest  on  the  present 
occasion.  They  kept  their  shops  all  open  on  the  day  of 
public  humiliation  appointed  by  the  government,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  late  distress.  [A  scourge  of  fever  which  had 
decimated  the  population  of  the  city.]  I  visited  the  cele- 
brated Museum  of  Peale  ;  the  principal  live  curiosities  were 
a  baboon,  monkey,  a  white  owl,  a  white-head  eagle,  a  hawk, 
a  rattlesnake,  and  the  cow  with  five  legs,  I  was  much 
pleased  with  his  interesting  collection  of  portrait  paintings 
of  the  first  Congress  in  1774  and  of  several  generals  in 
our  late  army,  I  visited  also  Pine's  Cabinet  of  Paintings. 
The  colors  were  coarse,  but  some  of  the  pictures  striking, 
particularly   the    allegorical    piece    representing   America ; 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         6i 

those  representing  Garrick  and  others  in  some  of  Shake- 
speare's plays ;  Mrs.  Yates  in  the  character  of  Medea  and 
Jason,  Macbeth,  etc. 

I  visited  the  President  at  one  of  his  pubHc  levees.  They 
are  every  Tuesday  from  three  to  four  o'clock  p.  m.  You 
enter,  make  a  bow;  the  President  and  company  all  stand 
with  their  hats  in  their  hands,  and  after  exchanging  a  few 
words  retire  sans  c'er'emonie.  I  saw  Mr.  Adams,  the  British 
Minister  Mr.  Hammond,  and  several  members  of  Congress. 
The  President  was  dressed  in  a  suit  of  plain  cloth  of  a  snuff 
color,  with  silk  stockings,  and  a  sword  by  his  side.  His 
manners  were  easy,  but  distant  and  reserved.  His  eye  was 
expressive  of  mildness  and  reflection.  His  person  was  tall 
and  full  of  dignity.  No  person  can  approach  him  without 
being  penetrated  with  respect  and  reverence.  Without  the 
brilliancy  of  Caesar's  talents,  or  the  daring  exertions  of 
Frederick,  such  has  been  his  steadiness,  discretion,  good 
sense,  and  integrity  that  no  man  ever  attained  a  greater 
ascendency  over  free  minds  or  ever  reigned  so  long  and  so 
completely  in  the  hearts  of  a  sober  and  intelligent  people. 

This  journey,  though  performed  in  the  month  of  De- 
cember, was  highly  agreeable  and  comfortable.  I  travelled 
in  the  public  stages,  and  found  the  stages  and  stage-houses 
in  good  accommodation.  I  shall  ever  remember  with 
pleasure  the  intimate  introduction  that  was  given  me  to 
the  knowledge  of  some  of  the  Southern  States  and  particu- 
larly of  the  Potowmac  Country,  which  has  a  city  so  admira- 
ble in  its  plan  and  noble  in  its  object  beginning  to  discover 
the  marks  of  industry,  genius,  and  freedom,  and  to  rear 
itself  on  its  banks. 

Upon  his  return  from  this  journey  Mr.  Kent  found 
a  new  era  opening  before  him.     He  had,  as  already 


62  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

related,  been  elected  to  the  recently  established  chair 
of  Law  in  Columbia  College,  The  salary,  it  is  true, 
was  not  munificent,  being  only  ^200  a  year;  but 
there  were  perquisites  attached  to  the  position  which 
amounted  to  as  much  more.  "  I  conclude  the  appoint- 
ment," he  wrote  to  his  brother,  "  not  only  honorable 
and  profitable,  but  it  will  even  aid  my  professional 
practice  at  the  bar.  You  can  easily  judge  how  forcibly 
I  am  now  led  to  professional  pursuits  and  historical 
inquiries,"  Although  he  was  elected  to  this  professor- 
ship in  December,  1793,  it  was  not  until  November, 
1794,  that  his  duties  actually  began.  The  preparation 
of  the  introductory  lecture  gave  zest  to  deeper  legal 
researches.  He  read,  in  the  original,  Bynkershoeck, 
Quintilian,  and  Cicero's  rhetorical  works,  besides 
English  reports  and  digests. 

In  February,  1794,  his  father  died,  at  the  house  of 
his  son  in  New  York,  after  a  long  and  afifhcting  illness. 
"  He  survived,"  wrote  Mr,  Kent,  "  not  only  the  use 
of  his  feet,  but,  in  a  great  degree,  the  powers  of 
his  understanding.  During  the  year  1794,"  he  con- 
tinues, "  I  removed  to  a  more  desirable  situation  in 
Liberty  Street,  my  business  increased,  and  in  the 
summer  of  that  year  I  devoted  myself  with  great 
zeal  and  industry  to  the  compilation  of  my  law 
lectures." 

"I  read  a  course  in  1794-95,"  he  recorded  in  his 
Memoranda,  "  to  about  forty  gentlemen  of  the  first 
rank  in  the  city.  They  were  very  well  received,  but 
I  have  long  since  discovered  them  to  have  been  slight 
and  trashy  productions.  I  wanted  judicial  labors  to 
teach    me  precision.      I   soon  became    considerably 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR    KENT  63 

involved  in  business,  but  was  never  fond  of,  nor  much 
distinguished  in,  the  contentions  of  the  Bar." 

Cliancellor  Kent's  slight  estimate  of  the  legal  value 
of  his  first  efforts  as  a  teacher  and  expounder  of 
the  law  does  not  appear  to  have  been  shared  by  his 
friends  and  admirers,  Hon.  John  Duer,  in  his  dis- 
course delivered  before  the  Bar  of  the  city  and  State 
of  New  York,  in  April,  1848,  to  which  allusion  has 
already  been  made,^  describes  the  introductory  lecture 
as  "written  with  great  vigor  of  style  and  compass  of 
thought,"  and  "  the  views  that  it  unfolds  of  the  true 
nature  and  province  of  the  law,  and  of  the  advantages 
to  be  derived  from  its  study,"  as  "judicious,  discrim- 
inating, and  comprehensive."  The  introductory  law 
lecture  was  printed  for  private  distribution  by  the 
trustees  of  Columbia  College,  in  1794,  by  Francis 
Childs  of  New  York.  This  was  followed,  the  following 
year,  by  a  pamphlet  called  :  "  Dissertations,  Being  the 
preliminary  part  of  a  course  of  Law  lectures  by  James 
Kent,  printed  by  George  Forman  of  No.  156  Front 
St.,  New  York,  for  the  Author  in  1795." 

These  "  dissertations  "  consisted  of  three  lectures  : 
the  first  on  the  "  Theory,  History,  and  Duties  of  Civil 
Government;"  the  second,  "  Of  the  History  of  the 
American  Union;"  and  the  third,  "  Of  the  Law  of 
Nations."  This  volume  was  published  at  the  expense 
of  the  author,  and,  as  Mr.  Kent  noted  later,  never 
returned  him  the  cost  of  publication.  A  distinguished 
fate,  however,  awaited  this  maiden  effort.  In  Brown's 
Treatise  on  Civil  and  Admiralty  Law,  published  in 
England  shortly  afterwards,   this  pamphlet  is  cited, 

^  Supra,  page  29. 


64  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

and  it  is  believed  that  this  is  the  first  reference  made 
to  an  American  law  publication  by  a  transatlantic 
writer. 

Among  the  papers  of  Chancellor  Kent,  found  after 
his  death,  are  copies  of  three  letters  in  criticism  of 
the  introductory  law  lecture  of  Mr,  Kent,  written 
by  John  Adams,  then  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States,  to  his  son  Charles  Adams.  The  packet  con- 
taining these  interesting  documents  bears  this  indorse- 
ment, in  the  handwriting  of  the  Chancellor  :  "  Copies 
of  three  letters  left  with  me  by  Charles  Adams,  Esq.,^ 
Feb'y  25,  1795."     These  letters  here  follow:  — 

I 

John  Adams  to  Ids  Son,  Charles  Adams. 

Philadelphia,  February  14,  1795. 

Dear  Charles,  —  As  you  seem  to  wish  to  know  my 
sentiments  of  Mr.  Kent's  Lecture,  I  will  give  you  a  few 
hints  to  assist  your  own  reflections  and  inquiries,  but  as  they 
may  be  liable  to  misconstruction  and  misrepresentation,  they 
must  be  in  confidence  between  you  and  me. 

I  am  much  pleased  with  the  Lecture  and  esteem  the 
talents  and  Character  of  the  Professor ;  indeed  I  wish  you 
to  consider  whatever  I  may  write  upon  the  subject  as  queries 
proposed  for  your  research,  rather  than  as  opinions  of  mine, 
much  less  as  Lessons  didactically  inculcated  by  a  Father 
upon  a  Son. 

I  can  scarcely  say  with  Mr.  Kent  on  the  first  and  second 
Page  that  "  the  attention  of  mankind  is  thoroughly  engaged 
in  speculations  on  the  Principles  of  public  Policy."  I  see 
a  general  Dissolution  of  Society,  a  general  absence  of  Prin- 

1  Charles  Adams,  born  May,  1770,  died  in  New  York,  December, 
1800,  leaving  no  male  descendants. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  65 

ciple,  a  general  scramble  of  factions  for  Power,  but  the  sin- 
cere Inquirers  after  Truth,  the  Impartial  Investigators  of 
Principles  are  yet  to  appear,  and  after  they  shall  appear, 
miracles  must  be  wrought  for  what  I  see,  before  Mankind 
will  respect  and  adopt  their  Discoveries. 

"The  human  mind,"  says  Mr.  Kent,  "which  has  been  so 
long  degraded  by  the  fetters  of  feudal  and  Papal  Tyranny, 
has  begun  to  free  herself  from  Bondage.^''  When  we  speak 
of  the  human  mind,  we  mean  commonly  in  Europe  :  and 
there,  it  is  true,  feudal  and  papal  tyranny  have  declined.  I 
shall  say  nothing  of  popery  at  present,  having  chiefly  in  view 
the  curt  part  of  our  Subject.  Feudal  Tyranny  has  declined, 
but  it  may  still  be  a  question  whether  the  human  mind  has 
proportionally  freed  itself  from  Bondage.  Instead  of  feudal 
Tyranny,  the  Tyranny  of  national  Debts,  Taxes,  and  funds 
and  Stocks  were  substituted,  and  it  has  been  sometimes  a 
serious  Question  which  was  worse.  Are  the  standing  armies 
of  Europe,  which  have  created  the  Debts  and  Taxes,  freer 
men  than  the  Retainers  and  Tenants  of  the  feudal  Barons  ? 
I  trow  not.  Are  not  the  People  now  universally  tributary 
to  the  holders  of  Stock,  the  public  creditors,  —  obliged  to 
labor  as  much,  to  pay  them,  as  they  did  formerly  to  pay  their 
landlords?  It  must  be  confessed  that  the  funding  Systems 
have  been  more  friendly  to  Arts,  Sciences,  Agriculture, 
Commerce,  Manufactures,  and  Industry  than  the  feudal 
System.  They  have  also  promoted  more  corruption  and 
Luxury  and  the  Destruction  of  all  Principle.  They  may 
have  converted  an  ardor  for  honor  and  military  glory  into 
universal  avarice.  One  passion  is  exchanged  for  another, 
one  Tyranny  is  substituted  for  another;  but  it  is  not  yet 
quite  clear  that  the  "  human  Mind  has  ever  begun  to  free 
herself  from  Bondage,"  or  if  it  has  begun  it  has  made  little 
Progress. 

The  funding  system  and  standing  armies  have  grown  to 

S 


66         MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

such  an  height  of  Tyranny  and  oppression  that  mankind  can 
bear  them  no  longer,  and  they  are  shaking  their  shoulders 
to  throw  them  off,  and  in  the  struggle  are  increasing  the 
Evil,  by  doubling  both  Debts,  Taxes,  and  Armies.  Are 
they  nearer  freeing  themselves  from  Bondage  ? 

They  have  now  substituted  a  new  Species  of  Bondage  with- 
out destroying  the  old  one.  In  France  they  have  destroyed 
monarchy  and  nobility,  but  have  they  prohibited  a  Tyranny 
of  Clubs  and  Majorities,  which  for  the  time  has  been  the 
worst  Tyranny  that  ever  existed  among  men  ?  They  have 
committed  more  cruelties  in  one  night  than  the  whole  House 
of  Bourbons  ever  committed  from  the  accession  of  Henry 
IV.  to  the  Death  of  Louis  XVI.  Instead  of  being  "  thor- 
oughly engaged  in  Speculations  on  the  Principles,"  instead 
of  freeing  themselves  from  Bondage,  Mankind  seem  to 
have  broken  to  pieces  the  feudal  Bondage  and  Destroyed 
funding  Systems  only  to  bow  their  necks  to  mere  Popularit)', 
a  Tyranny  as  terrible  as  either ;  it  is  the  Tyranny  of  Hurri- 
canes and  Tornadoes  or  the  raging  waves  of  the  Sea.  All 
freedom  of  thought,  speech,  writing,  and  Printing  shrink 
themselves  before  it,  as  if  it  were  made  up  of  Pretorian 
Bands  or  Turkish  Janizaries. 

There  may  be  a  few  Instances  of  men  who  have  exam- 
ined the  Theory  of  Government  with  a  liberal  Spirit :  but  I 
really  know  not  who  they  are.  But  certainly  they  have  not 
been  attended  to.  Those  who  have  taught  for  Doctrines 
the  Commandments  of  Faction,  and  the  impervious  Dogmas 
of  Popularity  are  the  only  ones  who  have  attracted  the  pub- 
lic attention. 

You  may  preserve  my  Letters,  if  you  think  them  deserv- 
ing any  notice,  and  fifty  years  hence,  compare  them  with 
the  Times.     I  am,  my  Dear  Sir, 

Your  affectionate  Father, 

John  Adams. 

Charles  Adams,  Esq. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         67 

II 

Jo  Jin  Adams  to  his  son,  Charles  Adams. 

Philadelphia,  February  14,  1795. 

Dear  Charles,  —  Our  amiable  Professor  in  the  5  th  Page 
informs  us  that  "  the  free  Commonwealth  of  the  United 
States,  which  in  all  its  ties,  relations,  and  dependencies,  is 
animated  with  the  pure  spirit  of  popular  representation, 
offers  the  highest  rewards  to  a  successful  cultivation  of  the 
law  and  the  utmost  encouragement  to  Genius." 

I  scarcely  have  the  courage,  my  dear  son,  to  write  even 
to  you  my  candid,  free,  and  independent  thoughts  upon  this 
passage.  Would  to  God  it  were  true  in  any  reasonable  con- 
struction of  the  words.  Is  it  animated  with  the  pure  spirit 
of  popular  representation?  And  what  is  the  pure  spirit  of 
popular  representation  ?  I  know  of  no  other  answer  which 
can  be  given  to  this  last  question  than  this,  viz. :  a  spirit  in 
Election,  of  Candor,  Truth,  Justice,  and  public  affection : 
in  contradistinction  and  opposition  to  all  Partiality,  false- 
hood, party-spirit.  Intrigue  or  other  species  of  corruption. 

Is  the  Commonwealth  of  the  U.  S.  animated  with  such  a 
pure  Spirit?  Recollect  the  first  Election  of  President  and 
Vice-President.  There  were  no  Bribes  received  or  offered. 
But  were  there  not  Intrigues  of  an  unwarrantable  nature, 
wholly  inconsistent  with  the  pure  spirit  we  have  Described? 
Recollect  the  second  Election  of  the  same  Officers.  Collect 
together  the  newspapers  in  all  the  States,  and  see  what  a 
monstrous  mass  of  lies  you  will  have  before  you.  Recollect 
the  pure  Spirit  of  Clintonian  Cabal,  of  Virginia  Artifice,  of 
Kentucky  delusion,  and  then  say  whether  all  this  is  pure 
Spirit. 

Examine  and  see  whether  you  find  this  pure  Spirit  in  the 
Election  of  Senators  of  U.  S.  —  I  shall  not  descend  into 
minute  details :    But  in  general,  my  son,  enquire  whether 


68  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

the  Elections  of  Senators  are  not  too  often  determined  by 
Party  Spirit  and  even  by  factions  meeting  in  the  Legisla- 
tures of  the  States,  and  whether  there  is  not  danger  that 
such  an  evil  will  increase. 

But  I  have  a  more  serious  question  still  to  ask  :  whether 
the  pure  Spirit  of  popular  representation  when  Elections  are 
so  frequent,  of  the  executives,  as  well  as  of  the  Senate,  is 
consistent  with  Liberty.  The  purest  Spirit  of  popular  Rep- 
resentation will  forever  elect  Representatives  of  the  majority 
in  number.  Education,  property,  honor,  will  not  be  pro- 
portionately represented,  consequently  Education,  Property, 
and  Honor  will  not  be  secure.  Moreover,  if  the  pure  Spirit 
of  Popularity  is  to  give  the  Tone  to  everything,  why  see  the 
President  and  Vice-President  chosen  by  Electors  instead  of 
the  People  ?  Why  are  Senators  chosen  by  another  descrip- 
tion of  Electors  and  not  by  the  People?  The  Answer  is 
obvious,  the  pure  Spirit  of  Popularity  is  not  always  and 
in  all  things  to  be  trusted. 

We  are  told  further  that  "  the  free  Commonwealth  of  the 
U.  S.  offers  the  highest  rewards  to  a  successful  cultivation 
of  the  Law,  and  the  utmost  encouragement  to  Genius." 
Whether  this  is  true  or  not  and  in  what  degree  it  is  true, 
or  otherwise,  deserves  your  serious  consideration.  The 
purest  Spirit  of  Popularity  that  we  have  in  this  Country  is 
adulterated  if  not  poisoned  with  ancient  mawkish  prejudices 
against  the  Profession  and  Professors  of  Law,  which  it  is 
difficult  to  overcome.  It  deserves  your  consideration  whether 
the  highest  Rewards  are  given  to  the  cultivation  of  the  law 
or  not.  Whether  they  are  not  given  too  often  to  a  success- 
ful cultivation  of  popular  Prejudices ;  to  an  assiduous  fo- 
mentation of  contracted  notions ;  to  a  Party  Spirit,  and  to 
vulgar  Sophistry.  To  an  abuse  of  words?  Read  Mr. 
Locke's  chapter  on  the  abuse  of  words,  and  see  if  the  Frauds 
and  knaveries  there  described  do  not  too  often  decide  the 
Spirit  of  popular  representation   and   bestow  the    highest 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         69 

rewards.  I  am  afraid  the  encouragement  to  Genius  will  as 
little  bear  examination.  Genius  with  Integrity  appears  to 
be  very  little  encouraged  and  Genius  without  Integrity  had 
better  not  be  encouraged  at  all.  Genius  is  too  much  en- 
couraged to  affect  Popularity ;  to  flatter  the  people ;  to 
excite  prejudices,  to  associate  with  Clubs,  but  not  enough 
to  study  and  pursue  the  public  good  in  the  plain  Path  of 
virtue.  Honor,  and  Knowledge. 

Tell  me,  Charles,  is  this  croaking?     At  all  Events  you 
must  keep  it  to  yourself,  and  not  expose  yourself  or  your 
Affte  Father, 

John  Adams. 
Charles  Adams,  Esq. 

Ill 

JoJm  Adams  to  his  son,  Charles  Adams. 

Philadelphia,  February  15,  1795. 

Dear  Charles,  —  Be  not  surprised  if,  in  considering  the 
Lecture,  I  lay  hold  of  particular  Expressions  which  appear 
to  me  exceptionable,  though  they  may  be  in  paragraphs  I 
love  and  admire.  "  Our  political  Fabrics  and  Systems  of 
Jurisprudence  have  been  reared  with  great  Pains  and  per- 
fected with  much  wisdom."      (Page  6.) 

Our  systems  of  Jurisprudence,  relative  to  the  administra- 
tion of  civil  and  criminal  Justice,  are  derived  from  our 
ancestors,  and  have  indeed  been  perfected  with  much  wis- 
dom. Our  political  fabrics,  too,  have  been  reared  with 
great  pains,  but  I  cannot  yet  say  they  have  been  perfected 
at  all ;  much  remains  to  be  done,  and  I  m.uch  fear  that 
Mr.  Kent  and  you  will  have  a  hard  labor  to  perfect  them 
in  the  whole  course  of  your  lives,  be  they  even  as  long  as  I 
wish  them. 

Pages  8  and  9  :  "  Many  of  the  fundamental  Doctrines  of 
their  (British)  Government  and  axioms  of  their  Jurispru- 


70  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

dence  are  utterly  subversive  of  Equality  of  rights."  Our 
learned  Lecturer  has  not  descended  to  particulars,  nor 
quoted  Instances ;  we  are,  therefore,  left  to  conjecture.  I 
own  I  know  of  no  such  Doctrines  or  axioms,  and  I  am 
sorry  to  see  our  Professor  indulging  and  inculcating  preju- 
dices against  a  constitutional  code  of  laws  which  have  rec- 
onciled right  to  power,  and  liberty  to  wealth  and  numbers 
more  effectively  and  for  a  longer  period  of  time  than  ever 
was  before  effected  upon  this  globe.  If  I  were  to  conjec- 
ture the  sense  of  Mr.  Kent,  I  should  suppose  that  he  alluded 
to  the  rights  of  Primogeniture  in  the  descent  of  real  estates, 
and  especially  in  the  Descent  of  Titles  of  Nobility,  Seats  in 
the  Senate,  and  above  all  of  the  Crown. 

Now  I  contend  that  the  laws  from  our  own  Country,  and 
every  other  Country  where  the  hereditary  Descent  of  real 
Estates  is  established,  is  as  utterly  subversive  of  Equality  as 
the  Descent  of  the  whole  of  real  estate  to  the  first  born,  or 
of  a  Lordship  in  Parliament,  or  of  the  Crown  itself.  All 
laws  which  establish  Property  are  inconsistent  with  Equality 
in  one  sense.  The  very  idea  of  Property  is  inconsistent 
with  equality.  Property  is  an  exclusive  privilege.  Rousseau 
acknowledges  this  when  he  says  in  his  "  Origin  of  Inequalities 
among  Mankind  "  that  the  first  man  who  marked  out  a  cab- 
bage yard  and  said,  "  It  is  mine,"  ought  to  have  been  put 
to  Death.  The  descent  of  real  Estate  is  not  by  the  law  of 
Nature,  but  by  municipal  law  alone ;  a  real  Estate  is  a 
public  Trust  as  much  as  any  public  office,  and  many  real 
Estates  are  public  Trusts  often  times  of  more  Importance 
to  the  People  than  many  public  offices  are.  If  the  inter- 
ests or  Policy  of  the  Nation  finds  it  necessary  that  an  heir 
apparent  should  be  educated  and  prepared  for  the  manage- 
ment of  an  Estate,  or  the  exercise  of  the  Trust,  it  has  a 
right,  and  it  is  its  duty,  to  do  it.  If  the  nation  finds  it 
necessary  to  keep  lands  together  in  such  quantities  as  may 
support  a  family,  instead  of  having  them  split  into  shreds 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         71 

only  to  corrupt  the  younger  children  and  do  mischief  in 
the  neighborhood,  it  has  a  right  to  do  it.  And  although 
this  may  not  be  thought  consistent  with  the  equality  and 
Independence  of  Nature,  it  is  consistent  with  an  equality 
of  civil  and  Political  rights  as  much  as  any  establishment 
of  Property  whatever. 

It  is  the  establishment  of  Property  and  of  marriage 
which  introduce  the  great  Inequalities  in  fact,  but  no  Ine- 
qualities of  right.  The  ancient  Legislator  Plato  particu- 
larly, and  every  other  great  man  who  has  reflected  deeply 
on  the  subject,  has  been  aware  of  this,  and  has  accord- 
ingly insisted  on  a  Community  of  Goods  and  of  wives.  Of 
goods  that  there  might  be  no  Property,  and  of  wives  that 
there  might  be  no  families.  All  the  wild  ravings  of  Rous- 
seau, imparted  to  the  world  by  his  enchanting  Eloquence, 
and  all  the  grave  whinings  of  De  Mably,  in  his  deliberative 
and  didactic  Style,  amount  to  the  same  thing.  Property  ! 
Property  is  their  great  enemy ;  both  of  them  saw  that  if 
you  admit  Property  their  whole  Systems  are  Demolished. 
I  may  one  day  find  leisure  to  write  you  some  strictures  on 
Rousseau  and  De  Mably,  especially  his  principles  of  Legis- 
lation, where  you  will  plainly  perceive  that  their  theories 
are  altogether  chimerical,  without  a  community  of  goods 
and  wives  and  children,  or  no  goods  at  all.  The  imperious 
and  supercilious  frown  of  Popularity  in  these  arbitrary 
times  forbids  me  to  communicate  anything  to  the  public, 
and  this  I  do  not  regret.  But  I  will  not  be  intimidated 
from  communicating  to  my  children  the  objections  and 
reflections  of  a  long  life  of  much  public  experience,  as  well 
as  some  private  reading,  which  I  know  to  be  founded  on 
Truth,  and  essential  to  their  Happiness  and  Safety. 

The  Judges,  Charles,  have  estates  for  Life  in  their  offices 
in  this  Country.  The  Judges,  then,  are  a  privileged  order ; 
would  Mr.  Kent  annihilate  this  privileged  order?  Will 
Mr.  Kent  say  that  this  privileged  order  is  utterly  subversive 


72  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

of  an  equality  of  rights?  A  Senate  is  essential  to  a  republic, 
—  a  senate  solid,  permanent,  and  independent  enough  to 
defend  the  Constitution  and  the  rights  of  men  both  against 
Power  and  Popularity.  Our  Senators  have  Estates  in  their 
offices  for  six  years.  Is  this  subversive  of  an  equality  of 
rights?  Suppose  the  time  should  come  when  increasing 
Intrigues  and  corruption  in  elections  should  make  it  neces- 
sary to  introduce  in  a  regular,  legal,  and  constitutional  way, 
a  prolongation  of  those  Estates  to  twelve  years,  would  that 
be  subversive  of  equality  of  rights?  Suppose,  again,  20, 
30,  40,  or  50  years  more  of  increasing  venality,  Bribery, 
Intrigues,  and  corruption,  as  well  as  additional  wealth  and 
numbers  should  make  it  necessary  for  the  people  to  give 
the  Senators  Estates  for  Life  in  their  offices,  as  the  judges 
now  have,  would  that  amendment  to  the  constitution  be 
utterly  subversive  of  equality  of  rights? 

One  supposition  more  :  suppose  Elections  of  Senators 
should  become,  by  the  acknowledgment  of  all  the  world,  a 
source  of  evil,  and  no  good  in  any  case,  and  better  men 
would  come  by  Inheritance  than  by  choice,  and  conse- 
quently a  seat  in  Senate  should  be  made  up  by  the  people 
themselves  an  Estate  of  Inheritance,  would  this  be  a  total 
subversion  of  Equality  of  rights?  So  far  otherwise  that  it 
would  be  the  only  chance  for  preserving  equal  laws  and 
equal  rights  to  all  or  any  of  the  people. 

The  Judges  are  made  independent  that  they  may  be 
upright,  —  under  no  temptation  to  be  partial  arising  from  a 
Desire  of  keeping,  or  a  fear  of  losing,  their  Places  or  ap- 
pointment. Is  it  not  as  necessary  that  the  Senators  should 
be  upright,  impartial,  above  fear,  favor,  affection,  or  hope  of 
reward,  or  fear  of  punishment?  Are  not  the  lives,  liber- 
ties, characters,  Property  of  Individuals,  parties,  and  indeed 
the  whole  People,  as  much  in  the  Power  of  a  Senator  as  a 
Judge?  Is  it  not,  then,  as  necessary  that  he  should  be 
independent  ? 


MEMOIRS  OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  73 

This  reasoning  has  prevailed  in  England  to  establish  an 
hereditary  House  of  Lords,  and  it  may  prevail  in  America 
to  establish  a  Senate  for  more  years,  for  Life,  or  for  an 
hereditary  Perpetuity,  and  in  neither  case  be  subversive  of 
any  equality  of  rights  at  all.  No  republic  ever  existed 
without  a  Senate,  and  in  rich,  powerful,  populous,  commer- 
cial Nations,  the  Senate  must  not  be  blown  about  with 
every  wind  of  popular  Breath  or  Doctrine.  Tell  me  what 
you  think  of  these  things. 

Your  affete  Father, 

John  Adams. 
Charles  Adams,  Esq. 

The  series  of  lectures  thus  auspiciously  begun  was 
continued  throughout  the  winter  of  1794-95,  closing 
about  March  i.  They  were  well  received,  served  to 
quicken  an  interest  in  jurisprudence,  especially  among 
members  of  the  Bar,  and  served  also,  no  doubt,  to 
increase  Mr.  Kent's  private  practice.  His  pecuniary 
affairs  prospered  and  the  period  of  depression  for 
him  had  finally  passed.  As  early  as  1794  his  circum- 
stances had  already  begun  to  improve.  In  June  of 
that  year  he  wrote  to  his  brother :  — 

.  .  .  Your  happiness  and  success  are  my  highest  wishes 
and  anxiety.  Our  interests  are  inseparably  conjoined  and 
our  profits  shall  be  also.  If  either  succeeds  in  pecuniary 
matters  and  the  other  does  not,  he  will  still  be  provided 
for.  I  sold  my  Poughkeepsie  lot  in  April  for  400  Pounds. 
This  discharged  my  200  Pounds  I  owed  still  on  it,  and  the 
residue  I  had  for  use.  I  owe  nobody  now,  and  I  have  200 
Pounds  loaned  on  interest.  So  you  see  I  have  some  re- 
source yet,  and  my  resources  are  yours  also. 

A  few^  months  later  we  find  him  a  real  estate  owner 
of  the  city  of  New  York. 


74  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

James  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

February  4th,  1795. 
Since  I  wrote  to  you  last  I  have  purchased  a  very  genteel 
house  in  Kmg  Street/  for  ^1475,  ^''^d  shall  move  into  it  in 
May.  The  payments  are  easy,  but  as  I  have  sold  my  right 
in  a  township  in  Ontario  for  ^^looo  clear  profit  payable  in 
one  year  I  expect  to  be  able  to  pay  for  the  house  much 
sooner  than  I  engaged. 

In  the  early  spring  of  1795  Mr.  Kent  completed 
his  first  course  of  law  lectures.  His  plan  of  the 
course,  as  designed  and  as  finally  executed,  is  set 
forth  in  an  epistle  to  his  brother,  Moss  Kent:  — 

James  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

March  i,  1795. 
On  Friday  last  I  closed  my  lectures  at  college  and  I  feel 
now  restored  to  my  ancient  freedom.  Twenty-six  lectures 
have  been  delivered,  extending  not  only  through  the  Con- 
stitution and  Jurisprudence  of  the  Union,  the  Constitution 
of  this  and  the  other  States,  but  our  doctrine  of  real 
property.  My  first  plan  was  to  examine  law  of  personal 
property,  including  the  commercial  branches,  and  the  sys- 
tem of  our  criminal  code.  But  I  found  myself  absolutely 
unable  to  complete  the  whole,  and  was  obliged  to  leave  this 
first  course  imperfect.  It  will  be  an  easy  thing  to  make 
these  additions,  and  review  and  improve  the  whole  by  next 
November.  I  am  satisfied  that  my  lectures  have  been  well 
received,  and  that  my  expectations  are  answered.  When 
I  recollect  what  I  have  done  in  point  of  labor  and  re- 
searches for  a  year  past,  I  am  astonished  at  the  extent  of 
the  effort,  and  I  should  not  have  had  courage  to  undertake 

1  Now  Pine  Street. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  75 

it  had  I  fully  anticipated  the  pains  which  have  been 
bestowed. 

My  time  now  is  once  more  my  own.  I  have  accordingly 
begun  Cicero's  works  in  the  morning  and  also  Homer  and  the 
French  authors.  My  friend  S.  Baldwin,  Esq.,  of  New  Haven, 
sent  me  this  last  fall  a  complete  set  of  Cicero's  works.  It 
is  in  ten  volumes,  and  I  expect  a  rich  store  of  pleasure  in 
perusing  them.^  In  May  I  move  into  our  new  house  in 
Pine  Street,  and  your  sister  and  I  are  flattering  ourselves 
with  much  happiness  and  neatness  under  our  new  roof, 

I  am  very  considerably  engaged  in  new  land  speculations. 
This,  however,  is  a  circumstance  to  be  kept  private.  You 
know  of  the  success  of  my  former  ones,  by  means  of  which 
I  was  enabled  to  clear  as  much  as  the  value  of  my  house 
and  lot.  I  expect  great  profit  from  what  I  am  now  con- 
cerned in.  If  I  am  lucky  I  shall  be  able  in  two  or  three 
years  to  retire  into  the  country.  If  they  do  not  turn  out 
well  I  think  I  cannot  lose  by  them,  for  I  can  at  all  events 
pay  the  consideration  moneys  by  my  own  resources.  To 
look  back  about  sixteen  months,  when  you  brought  our  good 
old  father  down  here,  and  when  you  and  I  were  in  the  depths 
of  despondency  and  very  poor,  and  to  contrast  that  state 
with  my  present  independent  and  flattering  condition,  ex- 
cites emotions  of  wonder  and  amazement.  You  are  now 
also  in  independence,  and  God  grant  we  may  both  take 
care  to  remain  so.  It  is  a  great  consolation  to  converse  in 
this  way  of  our  mutual  prosperity.  .  .  . 

In  the  succeeding  winter  a  second  course  of  lec- 
tures was  begun,  but,  for  some  reason  unexplained, 
they  met  with  little  encouragement,  and  after  a 
further  trial  the  following  winter,  they  were  aban- 
doned, although  he  retained  the  nominal  professor- 
1  Supra,  page  17. 


76  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

ship  until  the  year  1798.     Early  in  the  year  1796  he 
wrote  thus  to  his  brother:  — 

James  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

January  4,  1796. 
The  small  encouragement  with  which  my  lectures  have 
been  received  by  the  public  this  year  has  cooled  and  dulled 
my  ardor  for  finishing  and  perfecting  them.  I  have  never 
had  but  two  scholars  and  of  course  read  the  lectures  in  my 
office,  and  feel  little  ambition  about  them.  I  hope  soon  to 
enter  on  my  old  classical  career,  and  then  I  shall  be  happy 
again.  Nothing  is  so  miserable  as  irresolution  and  want  of 
vigorous  and  animated  application.  All  my  wishes  are  to 
realize  property  enough  to  retire  into  the  country,  and  live 
in  retirement  near  you.  There  is  a  probability  that  I  shall 
be  able  ere  long  to  do  it,  scd  miiltum  abludit  imago} 

A  passage  in  this,  and  another  in  the  last  preceding 
letter  as  well  as  in  subsequent  epistles,  betray  a  phase 
in  Mr.  Kent's  character,  —  his  longing  for  the  time 
when  he,  too,  might  retire  to  some  Sabine  farm,  there 
to  enjoy  otimn  cum  dignitate ;  a  longing  strangely  in- 
consistent with  the  active  energy  of  his  life.  Still  he 
clung  to  this  fond  illusion,  never  to  be  accomplished, 
until  his  Hfe's  work  was  ended.  For  him  there  could 
be  no  rest,  no  lingering  by  the  wayside,  no  rural  re- 
treat, until  the  door  of  the  temple  of  fame  should 
have  opened  to  receive  the  tribute  of  his  life. 

Upon  the  fly-leaf  of  Mr.  Kent's  own  copy  of  his 
first  law  lectures,  as  published,  is  found  this  note :  — 

This  work  was  published  in  December,  1794,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  trustees.     I  was  appointed  Professor  of  Law 

1  Cf.  Horace,  Sat.  ii.  3,  320. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  77 

in  Columbia  College,  Dec.  24,  1793.  On  the  17th  of 
November,  1794,  I  commenced  the  reading  of  a  course  of 
Lectures  in  the  College  Hall  and  delivered  the  introductory 
lecture.  I  read  that  season  twenty-six  lectures  (two  a 
week)  and  was  honored  by  the  attendance  throughout  the 
course  of  seven  students  and  thirty-six  gentlemen,  chiefly 
lawyers  and  law  students  who  did  not  belong  to  the  college. 
During  my  second  course,  commencing  November,  1795,  I 
read  thirty-one  lectures,  in  my  office,  and  had  only  two  stu- 
dents besides  my  clerks.  The  next  season  I  attempted 
another  course,  but  no  students  offering  to  attend,  I  dis- 
missed the  business,  and,  in  May,  1797,  sent  a  letter  of 
resignation  to  the  trustees.  This  was  not  accepted,  and  in 
the  winter  of  1797  and  1798,  in  my  office,  I  read  lectures  to 
six  or  eight  students,  and  in  April,  1798,  I  finally  resigned 
the  office.  I  published  the  ensuing  dissertations  in  De- 
cember, 1795,  ^^^  ^^^y  form  the  first  three  of  the  thirty- 
one  lectures  I  have  composed. 

In  May,  1797,  as  above  noted  by  himself,  Mr.  Kent 
tendered  his  resignation  of  his  professorship  of  Law 
in  Columbia  College.  His  letter  of  resignation  was 
in  these  words :  — 

Columbia  College,  May  2,  1797. 

Gentlemen,  —  I  take  the  liberty  of  communicating  to 
you  my  wish  to  resign  the  appointment  of  Professor  of  Law 
in  Columbia  College,  which  I  have  had  the  honor  to  hold 
from  you  for  upwards  of  three  years  past ;  and  it  is  with 
sincere  regret  I  mention  that  the  institution  has  not  been 
attended  with  all  the  success  which  you  had  intended  and 
which  I  have  endeavored  to  produce.  My  first  course  con- 
sisted of  twenty-six  lectures,  commenced  in  November,  1794, 
and  received  a  very  flattering  encouragement  and  steady  at- 
tention of  forty  students  and  several  other  gentlemen  of  the 


78  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

city,  equally  distinguished  for  their  literary  accomplish- 
ments, and  their  zeal  for  the  knowledge  and  improvement 
of  our  municipal  law.  The  second  course,  in  a  more  cor- 
rect state,  and  with  several  additional  lectures,  commanded 
only  two  students.  I  then  supposed  that  a  more  general 
acquaintance  with  the  plan  I  had  delineated,  and  the  man- 
ner in  which  it  was  executed,  might  possibly  conduce  to 
the  benefit  of  the  establishment,  and  accordingly  published, 
in  the  early  part  of  that  course,  the  three  preliminary  lec- 
tures, together  with  a  summary  of  the  entire  course,  which 
I  had  prepared,  and  which  formed  the  completion  of  my 
original  plan.  In  this  expectation  I  was  disappointed. 
The  commencement  of  a  third  annual  course,  in  November, 
was  duly  announced  in  the  public  print,  but  no  student  ap- 
peared to  countenance  the  attempt,  and  the  trial  was 
abandoned. 

Having  thus  acquitted  myself  to  the  best  of  my  ability, 
in  the  discharge  of  a  duty  which  I  accepted  with  diffidence, 
my  resignation  becomes  proper  and  necessary.  I  cannot, 
however,  take  my  leave  of  the  college  without  returning  to 
you,  gentlemen,  my  grateful  and  respectful  acknowledg- 
ments (and  which  I  shall  always  owe)  for  the  very  honor- 
able confidence  you  have  placed  in  me  ;  and  be  pleased  to 
accept  my  cordial  wishes  that  the  general  principles  of  our 
constitution  and  laws  may  still  be  academically  taught,  and 
that  the  institution  which  you  have  so  liberally  established 
may  hereafter,  under  abler  professors,  and  in  more  auspi- 
cious times,  be  crowned  with  happier  success. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  gentlemen,  with  perfect  respect, 
Your  humble  servant, 

James  Kent. 

The  Trustees  of  Columbia  College. 

Mr.  Kent's  copy  of  this  letter  was  found  inserted  in 
the  volume  of  his  lectures,  in  connection  with  the 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR    KENT  79 

note  above  quoted.     Appended  to  the  letter  are  these 
memoranda:  — 

At  the  annual  commencement  in  Columbia  College,  May 
3,  1797  [being  the  day  after  the  above  letter  was  written], 
I  was  honored  by  the  Trustees  by  the  Degree  of  Doctor  of 
Laws. 

Wednesday  evening,  April  18,  1838.  —  I  attended,  in  the 
Chapel  of  the  University  of  New  York,  and  heard  my  son 
William  Kent  deliver  his  introductory  law  lecture,  as  one  of 
the  professors  of  law  in  that  University,  being  forty-three 
years  and  five  months  since  I  delivered  the  annexed  lecture. 
I  was  thirty-one  years  and  four  months,  and  my  son  thirty- 
five  years  six  months  old,  when  we  delivered  our  respec- 
tive introductory  lectures. 

"The  summer  of  1795  was  oppressively  hot,"  writes 
Chancellor  Kent,  in  his  "  Memoranda,"  "  and  I  took 
at  that  time  a  most  settled  disgust  to  a  summer  resi- 
dence in  town.  The  yellow  fever  made  its  appearance 
the  latter  part  of  the  season,  and  soon  after  a  pleasant 
little  ride  that  I  had  with  my  friend  Boyd  to  River  Head 
on  Long  Island,  I  was  compelled  by  the  alarm  of 
disease  to  flee  with  my  family  on  the  1 7th  of  Septem- 
ber to  Poughkeepsie,  and  there  I  spent  six  weeks  in 
Mr.  Bailey's  library,  devoting  myself  with  pleasure 
and  ardor  to  polite  reading.  Business,  politics,  and 
law  studies  had  for  so  long  a  time  occupied  my  atten- 
tion that  I  entered  with  uncommon  zest  upon  the 
perusal  of  history,  voyages,  and  travels,  and  I  shall 
long  remember  the  force  of  my  returning  passion  for 
belles-lettres  pursuits. 

"In  February,  1796,  I  was  appointed  a  Master  in 


8o  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR    KENT 

Chancery.  This  office  promised  me  a  more  steady 
supply  of  pecuniary  aid  (of  which  I  stood  in  need), 
and  it  enabled  me  in  a  degree  to  relinquish  the  practice 
of  an  attorney,  which  1  always  extremely  hated.  My 
diffidence,  or  perhaps  pride,  was  a  principal  cause  of 
this  disgust,  since  I  found  that  I  had  not  the  requisite 
talents  for  a  popular  and  shining  advocate  at  the  Bar. 

"In  1796  I  began  my  career  of  official  life.  It 
came  upon  me  entirely  unsolicited  and  unexpected. 
In  February,  1796,  Governor  Jay  wrote  me  a  letter, 
stating  that  the  office  of  Master  in  Chancery  was 
vacant,  and  wished  to  know,  confidentially,  whether 
I  would  accept.  I  wrote  a  very  respectful,  but  very 
laconic,  answer.  It  was  that  '  I  was  content  to  accept 
of  the  office  if  appointed.'  The  same  day  I  received 
the  appointment,  and  was  astonished  to  learn  that 
there  were  sixteen  professed  applicants,  all  disap- 
pointed. This  office  gave  me  nearly  the  monopoly 
of  the  business  of  that  office,  for  there  was  but  one 
other  master  in  New  York.  The  office  kept  me  very 
busy  in  petty  details,  and  outdoor  concerns,  but  was 
profitable." 

To  his  brother  Mr.  Kent  wrote,  on  the  twenty- 
second  of  June,   1796:  — 

....  I  have  made  large  additions  to  my  books  since 
you  were  here,  but  the  new  office  of  Master  in  Chancery, 
which  I  hold,  is  exceedingly  perplexing,  by  its  avocations, 
and  almost  entirely  cuts  me  off  from  my  old  classical  com- 
panions, such  as  Cicero,  Homer,  and  Voltaire.  It  will  be 
impossible  ever  to  read  and  reflect  much  while  I  am  con- 
fined to  business  in  town,  and  equally  impossible  to  partake 
of  much  contentment  in  summer  seasons  in  a  noisy,  hateful 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         8i 

city.  It  is  Hope,  which,  on  the  opening  of  Pandora's 
Box,  so  kindly  hngered  for  our  consolation,  that  keeps  up 
my  cheerfulness  and  spirits,  —  the  hope,  I  mean,  of  quitting 
this  city,  at  some  future  day,  and  living  nearer  you  in  the 
country,  surrounded  by  quiet,  books,  fields,  gardens,  and  my 
lovely  wife  and  daughter. 

This  last  allusion  discloses  the  fact  that  the  terrible 
loss  of  three  years  before,  which  had  overwhelmed 
Mr.  Kent  and  his  wife  with  grief,  had  now,  in  some 
measure,  been  repaired.  On  the  23d  of  March,  1796, 
he  wrote  to  his  brother :  — 

Dear  Brother,  —  My  little  babe  is  now  five  weeks  old, 
and  a  most  sweet,  divine  little  thing.  She  is  very  fair  and 
flourishing,  and  I  feel  as  if  my  former  loss  was  almost 
wholly  made  up.  I  hope  to  see  you  in  April  and  in  Novem- 
ber also.  I  am  doing  a  little  business  and  getting  along  as 
well  as  I  can.  I  hope  in  a  year  or  two  to  wind  up  worth 
something,  and  retreat  into  the  country. 

Three  months  later  he  again  wrote  to  the  same 
correspondent :  — 

I  am  now  alone  here  at  home.  I  expect  my  wife,  how- 
ever, next  Saturday,  and  my  little  babe,  which  you  may  be 
assured  is  extremely  engaging  and  lovely.  It  is  the  uni- 
versal assent  of  my  acquaintance  that  my  little  child  equals 
any  of  its  age  in  sprightliness,  health,  and  beauty. 

This  child  was  his  daughter  Elizabeth,  bearing  her 
mother's  name.  Later  in  life  she  was  known  as  EHza, 
and  married  Mr.  Isaac  S.  Hone  of  Philadelphia. 


82  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 


IV 


PUBLIC  honors,  with  James  Kent,  now  began  to 
multiply.  Within  less  than  a  year  after  his 
appointment  as  Master  in  Chancery  he  was  elected  a 
member  of  the  Assembly  from  the  city  of  New  York, 
and  very  soon  thereafter  he  received  from  Governor 
Jay,  without  his  own  solicitation,  or  previous  knowl- 
edge, an  appointment  to  the  office  of  Recorder,  a 
minor  judicial  office  of  the  city  of  New  York,  at  that 
time  confined,  in  its  scope,  to  civil  causes.  He  him- 
self thus  recorded  this  experience  :  — 

"  I  had  commenced  in  1786  to  be  a  zealous  Feder- 
alist. I  read  everything  in  politics.  I  got  the  Fed- 
eralist almost  by  heart,  and  became  intimate  with 
Hamilton.  I  entered  with  ardor  into  the  Federal  pol- 
itics against  France  in  1793,  and  my  hostility  to  the 
French  democracy  and  to  French  power  beat  with 
strong  pulsation  down  to  the  Battle  of  Waterloo. 

"In  the  spring  of  1796  I  was  elected  a  member 
of  Assembly  of  New  York,  and  by  this  time,  or  in 
the  space  of  three  years,  I  had  attained  to  standing, 
influence,  and  competent  support  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  The  office  of  Master  in  Chancery  was  attended 
to  in  all  its  little  outdoor  duties  with  unceasing  and 
punctual  attention,  and  I  found  it  alone  nearly  ade- 
quate to  my  support.     After  spending  the  months  of 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR  KENT         83 

January  and  February,  1797,  at  Albany,  with  the 
Legislature,  I  no  sooner  returned  home  than  I  was, 
very  unexpectedly  for  myself,  appointed  Recorder  of 
the  City  of  New  York.  This  was  done  at  Albany,  and 
without  my  knowledge  that  the  office  was  vacant  or 
was  expected  to  be.  The  first  I  heard  of  it  was  the 
appointment  announced  in  the  papers.  This  was 
very  gratifying  to  me,  because  it  was  a  judicial  office, 
and  I  thought  that  it  would  relieve  me  from  the 
drudgery  of  practice,  and  give  me  way  of  display- 
ing what  I  knew,  and  of  being  useful,  and  to  my  taste. 
I  pursued  my  studies  with  increased  appetite,  and 
enlarged  my  law  library  very  much.  But  I  was  over- 
whelmed with  office  business,  for  the  Governor  allowed 
me  to  retain  the  other  office  also,  and  with  these  joint 
duties,  and  counsel  business  in  the  Supreme  Court,  I 
made  a  great  deal  of  money  that  year.  I  was  able 
to  renounce  all  my  professional  business  except  a 
little  occasional  employment  as  counsel  in  the  Su- 
preme Court.  I  devoted  that  year  most  zealously  and 
promptly  to  the  duties  of  my  respective  offices, 
and  I  found  myself  at  this  era  advanced  to  an  easy 
and  independent  support,  to  public  estimation,  and  to 
complete  and  joyful  emancipation  from  all  pecuniary 
engagements." 

Upon  his  commission  as  Recorder  of  the  City  of 
New  York,  which  was  signed  by  John  Jay,  Governor, 
Chancellor  Kent  made  this  endorsement:  — 

At  the  time  of  taking  the  above  oath  I  was  admitted  a 
freeman  of  the  City,  and  took  the  oath  accordingly,  and  was 
also  at  the  same  time  appointed  Attorney  and  Counsel  to 
the  Corporation. 


84  MEMOIRS   OF    CHANCELLOR   KENT 

This  institution  of  freeman  was  a  direct  derivation 
from  the  old  EngHsh  form  of  government,  and  refers 
to  the  rights  of  certain  classes  only  to  vote  for  can- 
didates for  municipal  positions.  To  entitle  a  man  to 
these  privileges  of  citizenship,  that  of  voting  or  being 
voted  for,  he  was  obliged  to  be  a  "  freeman  "  or  a 
'*  freeholder  "  in  the  strict  English  sense.  The  "  free- 
holder "  in  New  York  was  one  who  was  the  owner  of 
an  interest  in  land,  of  the  value  of  forty  shillings  an- 
nually. The  census  of  1795  shows  New  York  to  have 
had  a  population  of  30,000,  while  it  had  only  1209 
freeholders,  holding  real  property  of  the  value  of  i^  100 
and  upwards,  1221  ofi^20,  and  2661  of  forty  shillings. 
The  "  freemen  "  were  not  so  numerous  as  the  "  free- 
holders," and  also  did  not  consist  of  such  a  select 
body,  since  they  were,  for  the  most  part,  recruited  from 
the  upper  artisan  class,  with  few  merchants  and  pro- 
fessional men.  The  fee  for  admission  varied  from  five 
pounds  to  twenty  shillings,  not  including  a  number  of 
smaller  fees  payable  to  the  mayor,  clerk,  bell-ringer, 
and  other  city  officials,  who  at  that  date  were  depend- 
ent upon  their  fees  and  perquisites  for  their  salaries. 

If  one  might  judge  wholly  from  his  correspondence, 
the  conclusion  would  be  reached  that,  although  Mr. 
Kent  consented  for  a  third  time  to  occupy  a  seat  in 
the  State  legislature,  an  active  participation  in  polit- 
ical life  had  now  for  him  few  charms.  "  I  was  a 
candidate  for  the  Assembly  in  this  city,"  he  wrote  to 
his  brother,  in  May,  1796,  "very  much  against  my 
inclination.  I  am  probably  elected,  and  it  will  be  for 
the  last  time ;  for  to  attain  to  a  plain  but  independent 
and  active  literary  life  will  be  the  consummation  of 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT  85 

my  wishes.  .  .  .  My  office  in  Chancery  keeps  me  very 
much  occupied,  and  I  beheve  is  alone  equal  to  my 
support.  In  every  respect  I  have  no  reason  to  be 
dissatisfied  with  my  situation  and  prospects."  Again, 
to  Theodorus  Bailey  he  writes :  — 

I  set  off  to-morrow  for  Albany,  and  I  dread  the  unpleas- 
antness of  the  campaign,  and  regret  the  sacrifice  of  business 
I  make.  It  is  a  scrape  in  which  I  shall  not  find  myself  very 
soon  again,  and  if  you  are  not  re-elected,  as  your  Dutchess 
opponents  assert,  I  think  there  is  not  much  reason  for 
regret. 

The  matters  of  prime  importance  before  the  As- 
sembly which  convened  this  year  were  the  election 
of  a  United  States  Senator  to  succeed  Burr,  and  the 
choice  of  electors  for  President  and  Vice-President  of 
the  United  States.  Even  these  important  matters  ap- 
pear not  to  have  engrossed  his  attention  to  a  consider- 
able extent.  An  election  of  President  of  the  United 
States  was  impending,  but  even  to  this  his  cor- 
respondence shows  but  slight  reference.  "  We  are 
greatly  apprehensive,"  he  wrote  to  his  brother  on  the 
13th  of  November,  1796,  "  that  Jefferson  will  be  Presi- 
dent." The  political  antagonism  of  his  brother-in-law, 
Theodorus  Bailey,  does  not  appear  to  have  shaken 
the  personal  friendship  of  the  two,  for  a  month  later 
he  wrote  again  to  Mr.  Bailey,  then  a  member  of 
Congress :  "  Our  anxiety  for  news  of  the  result  of 
the  election  for  President  has  been  on  tiptoe  for  sev- 
eral days,  but  if  the  accounts  of  yesterday  from  Vir- 
ginia are  true  I  take  it  for  granted  Mr.  Adams  will  be 
President.     It  is  a  fact,  too,  highly  honorable  to  the 


86  MEMOIRS   OF  CHANCELLOR   KENT 

Virginian  character  that  amidst  all  their  party  zeal 
they  have  so  completely  abandoned  Burr." 

President  Washington,  in  his  eighth  and  last  an- 
nual message  to  Congress,  December  7,  1796,  recom- 
mended to  the  United  States  "  to  look  to  the  means 
and  set  about  the  gradual  creation  of  a  navy."  He 
also  proposed  "  to  the  consideration  of  Congress  the 
expediency  of  establishing  a  national  university  and 
also  a  military  academy."  "  The  desirableness  of 
both  these  institutions,"  he  said,  "  has  so  constantly 
increased  with  every  new  view  I  have  taken  of  the 
subject  that  I  cannot  omit  the  opportunity  of  once  for 
all  recalling  your  attention  to  them," 

President  Washington  in  this  message  also  consid- 
ered our  relations  with  the  French  Republic  in  these 
words :  — 

"  Our  trade  has  suffered  and  is  suffering  extensive 
injuries  in  the  West  Indies  from  the  cruisers  and  agents 
of  the  French  Republic,  and  communications  have 
been  received  from  its  minister  here  which  indicate 
the  danger  of  a  further  disturbance  of  our  commerce 
by  its  authority,  and  which  are  in  other  respects  far 
from  agreeable.  ...  I  cannot  forget  what  is  due  to 
the  character  of  our  government  and  nation,  or  to  a 
full  and  entire  confidence  in  the  good  sense,  patriot- 
ism, self-respect,  and  fortitude  of  my  countrymen."  ^ 

On  receipt  of  a  copy  of  this  important  State  paper, 
sent  him  by  his  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Bailey,  Mr.  Kent 
writes :  — 

1  Vide  Richardson's  "  Compilation  of  the  Messages  and  Papers  of 
the  Presidents,"  i.  201,  202,  203. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         87 

James  Kent  to  Theodorus  Bailey. 

December  17,  1796. 
I  received  yours  inclosing  the  President's  speech.  All 
his  writings  discover  much  experimental  knowledge,  great 
reflection,  and  anxious  solicitude  and  love  for  his  country. 
I  have,  however,  my  doubts  on  the  policy  of  naval  arma- 
ments and  military  academies.  They  are  apt  to  lead  by 
gradual  steps  to  heavy  expenses,  and  to  encourage  a  pro- 
pensity to  war.  But  I  highly  approve  of  the  remarks  con- 
cerning the  attitude  of  the  French  Government  in  relation 
to  us.  Their  treatment  of  the  United  States  through  the 
medium  of  their  ministers  has,  from  the  beginning  of  the 
war,  according  to  my  impression  of  things,  been  extremely 
insolent  and  unjust. 

The  election  of  John  Adams  to  the  Presidency  of 
the  United  States,  in  defeat  of  Jefferson,  was,  as  has 
been  seen,  exceedingly  gratifying  to  Mr.  Kent.  Both 
were  ardent  Federalists,  and  Mr.  Adams's  opinions,  as 
indicated  by  Mr.  Kent's  careful  preservation  of  the 
copies  given  him  of  the  letters  of  the  Vice-President 
to  his  son  Charles,^  were  held  by  him  in  great  respect. 
Mr.  Kent  was  not,  however,  so  ardent  an  admirer  of 
any  man  that  he  deemed  him  to  be  beyond  criticism. 
In  July,  1791,  he  had  written  to  his  brother:  — 

"  I  enclose  to  you  a  couple  of  our  Poughkeepsie 
papers,  by  which  you  will  see  that  I  have  employed 
some  of  my  leisure  moments  in  other  vocations  than 
the  classics.  I  thought,  and  think  still,  that  Mr. 
Adams  is  propagating  a  passion  for  monarchy.  I 
think  he  is  vulnerable  and  deserves  reprehension." 

1  S2ipra,  pp.  64-73. 


88         MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

The  publication  to  which  Mr.  Kent  refers  appeared 
in  the  issue  of  the  "  Poughkeepsie  Journal  "  for  May 
21,  1 79 1,  and  will  be  read  with  interest,  in  connection 
with  Mr.  Adams's  critiques,  already  presented,  of  Mr. 
Kent's  law  lectures,  delivered  four  years  later.  The 
publication,  it  will  be  seen,  is  in  form  of  a  letter  ad- 
dressed to  a  young  student  of  political  science. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  just  now  received  yours  of  the 
lOth  inst.,  and  I  thank  you  for  the  remarks  on  the 
work  you  have  lately  read.  It  appears  to  answer  in 
your  mind  the  recommendations  I  gave  it  in  a  former 
letter.  Nothing  gives  me  more  pleasure  at  my  time 
of  life  than  to  be  imparting  the  little  fruits  of  my 
knowledge  and  experience  to  the  generation  which  is 
coming  after  me.  Tho'  I  have  but  a  few  moments' 
leisure,  I  shall  endeavor,  tho'  imperfectly,  to  comply 
with  your  request  and  give  you  my  thoughts  on  the 
writings  of  Mr.  Adams,  the  Vice-President,  on  which 
you  tell  me  you  are  about  to  enter.  As  you  are  on 
a  course  of  political  studies,  which  I  hope  hereafter 
will  render  you  a  wise,  a  useful,  and  above  all  an 
honored  patriot,  I  would  have  you  always  bear  in 
mind  that  you  cannot  imbibe  too  deep  an  acquaint- 
ance with  nor  cultivate  too  high  an  attachment  to 
the  general  or  local  Constitutions  of  the  United 
States. 

The  Federalist,  tho'  written  in  haste  and  on  the 
spur  of  the  occasion,  is,  as  I  have  observed  to  you 
before,  one  of  the  best  publications  on  the  former. 
It  is  full  of  correct  method,  sound  sense,  and  lumi- 
nous  principles    of  liberty,   from   beginning  to  end, 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         89 

and  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  commentary  will  be 
coeval  in  point  of  time  with  the  text. 

But  the  writings  of  Mr.  Adams  must  be  read  with 
some  grain  of  allowance.  There  is  a  great  deal  of 
learning  and  a  great  deal  of  wise  principle  of  govern- 
ment brought  into  view,  but  he  appears  to  me  to  be 
attached  to  aristocratical  and  monarchical  principles. 
My  belief  is  founded  on  an  attentive  examination  of 
his  writings.  This  great  master  of  politics  is  fre- 
quently and  pretty  directly  inculcating  a  scepticism 
as  to  the  goodness  of  Republican  government,  and  a 
belief  of  the  utility  of  hereditary  monarchy,  in  terms 
which  cannot  but  excite  in  the  best  of  those  who  are 
attached  to  the  one,  and  who  despise  the  other,  a 
painful  regret  and  a  lively  indignation. 

I  wish  to  make  a  firm  stand  against  such  pernicious 
tenets.  They  are  as  directly  in  the  face  of  our 
institutions  and  manners  as  they  are  repugnant  to 
our  feelings  and  happiness.  Besides,  it  is  against 
moral  fitness,  no  less  than  political  duty,  to  be  con- 
stantly instilling  distrust  and  diffidence  as  to  the  Con- 
stitution of  our  country.  An  unshaken  confidence, 
a  reverential  attachment  to  our  established  system, 
ought  rather  to  be  the  lesson  of  the  schools. 

In  vol.  i.,  letter  20,  of  his  defence  of  the  Ameri- 
can Constitution  he  observes  :  "  The  Americans  have 
not  made  their  first  magistrates  hereditary,  nor  their 
Senators  ;  here  they  differ  from  the  English  constitu- 
tion and  with  great  propriety.  Land  is  so  equally 
divided  among  the  people  that  they  w^ould  not  endure 
a  hereditary  king  and  nobility ;  or  at  least,  if  created, 
they  would  be  entirely  subservient  to  the  Commons, 


90  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

in  whom  nineteen  twentieths  of  the  property  would 
reside.  In  future  ages  if  the  States  become  great 
nations,  rich,  powerful,  and  luxurious,  their  own  feel- 
ings and  good  sense  will  dictate  to  them  what  to  do. 
They  may  make  transition  by  a  fresh  convention,  with- 
out the  smallest  interruption  of  liberty.  But  they 
will  never  become  necessary  until  great  quantities  of 
property  get  into  few  hands." 

Here  Mr.  Adams  speaks  of  hereditary  monarchy 
and  aristocracy  as  not  advisable  in  this  country,  as 
yet;  we  are  not  quite  ripe  for  them,  because  of  our 
too  great  equality  of  property.  Hereafter  the  natural 
progress  of  things  will  render  them  necessary,  and 
they  may  exist  without  the  smallest  interruption 
of  liberty.  If  this  change  should  be  thought  proper, 
Mr.  Adams  informs  us  we  have  an  aristocracy  already 
formed  for  our  purpose  by  the  kind  hand  of  nature. 
In  letter  25  of  same  volume  he  observes:  — 

"  There  are  sources  of  inequality  in  every  society, 
and  in  Massachusetts  as  well  as  in  others:  i.  In- 
equality of  wealth;  2.  Of  birth;  3.  Of  merit  ;  and 
4.  All  these  advantages  of  birth,  fortune  and  fame 
united.  These  sources  of  inequality  can  never  be 
altered  by  any  people,  because  they  are  founded  on 
the  constitution  of  nature.  This  natural  aristocracy 
among  mankind  is  a  body  of  men  which  contains 
the  greatest  collection  of  virtues  and  ability  in  a  free 
government." 

Fame  and  fortune  may  be  and  frequently  are  hered- 
itary, but  this  is  the  first  time  I  ever  heard  a  grave 
philosopher  pronounce  virtue  and  ability  to  be  so. 

In  the  3d  volume  of  his  defence,  and  which  con- 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         91 

tains  a  very  ingenious  and  useful  criticism  on  Mr. 
Needham's  "  Theory  of  a  Commonwealth,"  he  ob- 
serves (Letter  6)  that :  "  Wg  have  adopted  in  Amer- 
ica one  idea  of  Needham'sJin  making  a  succession  in 
our  Senate  and  Governors.  It  is  still,  however,  prob- 
lematical whether  the  succession  will  be  the  grand 
preservative  against  corruption,  or  the  grand  inlet  to 
it.  There  is  room  to  hope  and  grounds  to  fear.  The 
experiment  is  made,  and  it  will  have  fair  play.  If 
corruption  breaks  in  a  remedy  must  be  provided,  and 
what  that  remedy  must  be  is  well  known  to  every 
man  who  thinks.  ...  In  what  manner  annual  elections 
of  Governors  and  Senators  will  operate  in  America 
remains  to  be  ascertained.  It  should  always  be  re- 
membered that  this  is  not  the  first  experiment  that 
was  ever  made  in  the  world,  of  the  election  of  great 
officers  of  State.  How  they  have  hitherto  operated 
in  every  great  nation,  and  what  has  been  the  end, 
is  very  well  known.  Mankind  has  universally  dis- 
covered that  chance  is  preferable  to  a  corrupt 
choice,  and  has  trusted  Providence  rather  than 
itself.  Thank  Heaven !  Americans  understand  call- 
ing conventions,  and  if  time  should  come,  as  it  very 
probably  may,  when  hereditary  descent  shall  become 
a  less  evil  than  fraud  and  violence,  such  a  convention 
may  still  prevent  the  first  magistrate  from  becoming 
absolute  as  well  as  hereditary.  This  hazardous  ex- 
periment we  have  tried,  and  if  elections  are  soberly 
made,  it  may  answer  well ;  if  not,  the  people  must 
again  have  recourse  to  convention  and  find  a 
remedy."  J 

The  prevailing  bent  of  Mr.  Adams  in  favor  of  hered- 


92  MEMOIRS   OF    CHANCELLOR   KENT 

itary  government  seems  to  have  acquired  new  force 
as  he  proceeded  in  his  writings.  In  first  volume  he 
speaks  of  it  as  a  thing  desirable  only  at  some  future 
period  and  not  suited  to  our  present  condition.  Here 
he  declares  himself  much  more  emphatically  in  its 
favor,  considers  elective  governments  as  of  hazardous 
experiment  and  of  doubtful  issue,  and,  in  a  strain  of 
exultation  and  devotion,  thanks  Heaven  that  America 
can  assume  with  ease  an  hereditary  monarchy.  Mr. 
Adams  has  lately  obliged  the  public  with  a  number 
of  periodical  pieces,  entitled  "Discourses  on  Davila," 
and  which,  like  all  his  other  writings,  discover  exten- 
sive learning  and  superior  capacity,  and  are  calculated, 
like  his  former  volumes,  to  point  out  the  necessity  of 
a  balanced  government.  These  discourses,  however, 
are  constantly  interrupted  with  the  remarks  on  the 
natural  love  for  family  and  distinctions  and  property 
and  rank,  and  that  aristocracy  and  monarchy  have 
their  foundation  in  the  original  constitution  of  our 
nature. 

In  No.  12  he  observes:  "  But  it  shall  be  left  to  the 
contemplation  of  our  state  physicians  to  discover  the 
causes  and  the  remedy  of  that  fever  whereof  our 
power  is  sick.  One  question  shall  be  respectfully 
insinuated :  whether  equal  laws,  the  result  only  of 
balanced  government,  can  ever  be  obtained,  without 
some  sign  or  other  of  distinction  and  degree."  In 
No.  15,  after  many  arguments  on  the  unextinguishable 
passion  for  title  and  distinction,  he  breaks  out  into 
the  following  apostrophe  :  "  Americans,  rejoice  that 
from  experience  you  have  learned  wisdom,  and  instead 
of  a  whimsical  and  fantastic  project,  you  have  adopted 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         93 

a  promising  essay  towards  a  well  ordered  govern- 
ment." 

Mr.  Adams  has  now  begun  a  discourse  on  Stephen 
Boetius/  which  will  probably  be  the  same  thing  as  a 
second  edition  of  his  commentary  on  Needham.  It 
would  be  easy  for  me  to  proceed  with  quotations  of 
similar  import,  but  I  trust  I  have  sufficiently  proved 
the  truth  of  my  assertion  and  the  justness  of  my  belief 
in  the  beginning  of  this  letter,  that  Mr.  Adams  was 
attached  to  monarchical,  aristocratical  principles.  In 
saying  this  I  do  not  desire,  if  I  had  the  power,  to 
derogate  from  the  general  reputation  of  his  work.  I 
only  wish  that  the  false  doctrines  they  contain  may 
be  separated  from  the  salutary  counsels  with  which 
they  are  attended. 

His  writings  have  profoundly  developed  and  placed 
in  all  its  variety  of  attitude  to  the  world  one  excellent 
truth,  long  before  known,  recognized,  and  adopted  by 
his  countrymen  in  their  political  systems,  and  that  is, 
the  necessity  of  a  division  of  the  legislative,  executive, 
and  judicial  powers,  and  the  partition  of  the  former 
into  three  independent  parts,  in  order  to  control  the 
spirit  of  rivalship  inherent  in  the  minds  of  men.  But 
his  writings  have  also  inculcated,  cherished,  and  prop- 
agated one  abominable  heresy,  and  that  is,  that  hered- 
itary monarchy  and  aristocracy  are  compatible  with 
permanent  freedom,  and  probably  effectual  to  a  wise, 
happy,  and  perfectly  balanced  constitution. 

1  Stephen  Boetius  lived  in  the  reign  of  Charles  IX.  of  France,  and 
was  one  of  the  King's  counsellors  in  the  Court  of  the  Parliament  of 
Bordeaux,  and  the  friend  and  contemporary  of  Montaigne.  He  died 
young,  at  the  age  of  thirty-two  years,  leaving  behind  him  a  most 
excellent  reputation. 


94  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

It  is  well  worth  observing  that  Mr.  Adams  has  un- 
dergone, since  his  residence  in  Europe,  a  very  great 
change  in  his  political  principles.  He  wrote  a  letter 
to  Mr.  Wythe,  of  Virginia,  and  which  has  been  re- 
cently published.  In  that  letter  he  says  that  there  is 
no  good  government  but  what  is  republican  ;  that  the 
only  valuable  part  of  the  British  Constitution  is  so ; 
that  the  legislature  should  be  divided  into  two  branches, 
and  that  the  executive  should  have  a  negative  in  both ; 
but  that  the  executive,  as  well  as  both  branches  of  the 
legislature,  ought  to  be  annually  elective,  there  not 
being,  in  the  whole  circle  of  science,  a  maxim  more 
infallible  than  this  :  Where  annual  elections  end,  there 
tyranny  begins.  "  These  great  men  in  this  respect," 
says  Mr.  Adams,  **  should  be  elected  once  a  year. 

'  As  bubbles  on  the  sea  of  matter  form, 
They  rise,  they  break,  and  to  that  sea  return.' 

This  will  teach  them  the  great  political  virtues  of 
humility,  patience,  and  moderation,  without  which 
every  man  in  power  becomes  a  ravenous  beast  of 
prey." 

Mr.  Adams  ought  to  show  us  whether  human  na- 
ture has  altered  since  the  year  1776,  and  what  there 
is  at  this  day,  more  than  there  was  at  that  day,  to  pre- 
vent a  man  who  holds  his  seat  by  hereditary  right,  or 
(as  Mr.  Burke  says  the  king  holds  his  crown)  "  in 
contempt  of  the  people  and  who  is  not  responsible 
for  his  conduct,"  from  becoming  a  ravenous  beast  of 
prey.  Whereas,  the  great  leading  maxim  in  all  his 
writing  is  that  mankind  is  just  as  imperfect  as  for- 
merly, in  America  as  in  Europe,  in  this  century  as  in 
ten  centuries  aero. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         95 

But  it  is  the  fate  of  Mr.  Adams,  in  many  places,  to 
be  as  inconsistent  with  himself  as  some  of  his  doc- 
trines are  inconsistent  with  the  genius  of  his  country. 
The  English  government  is  the  perfect  model  to  which 
his  observations  are  directed.  "  It  is  [says  he]  the 
most  stupendous  fabric  of  modern  invention,  both  for 
the  adjustment  of  the  balance  and  the  prevention  of 
its  vibrations."  But  the  furious  wars  of  the  two  Roses, 
the  constant  tyranny  of  the  Tudors,  the  constant  tyr- 
anny and  convulsions  under  the  Stuarts,  the  two 
rebellions  against  the  house  of  Hanover,  are  rather 
bad  precedents  in  favor  of  hereditary  succession.  At 
present  there  is  not,  indeed,  the  avowed  oppression  of 
former  times.  But  the  constitutional  tyranny  (if  I 
may  so  express  myself)  of  the  hereditary  part  has 
changed  its  color,  not  its  nature.  It  has  laid  aside  its 
fierce  visage  and  assumed  the  livery  of  Venus  and 
the  Graces,  Henry  VIII.  was  a  despot,  with  the  iron 
rod  of  prerogative.  George  III.  is  a  despot  also,  with 
the  courtly  sceptre  of  corruption.  I  sincerely  believe 
the  English  administration  to  be  as  much  under  the 
influence  of  corruption  as  that  of  any  government  in 
Europe.  The  House  of  Commons,  chosen  once  in 
seven  years,  is  a  mere  mockery  of  representation. 
The  English  nation  would  have,  if  justice  were  done 
them,  their  Commons  fairly  chosen  by  upwards  of 
400,000  electors,  and  yet  a  ninth  part  of  the  English 
representatives  are  chosen  by  364  votes  and  a  ma- 
jority of  the  representation  by  5^723  electors,  most  of 
whom  have  no  property.  The  House  of  Commons, 
thus  wretchedly  constituted,  has  not  been  able  (as  we 
might  well  suppose)  to  preserve  its  equipoise  in  the 


96  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

system,  and  has  submitted  itself  implicitly  to  the  cor- 
rupt influence  of  the  hereditary  despotism. 

Nothing  but  the  independence  of  their  judiciary 
and  pride  and  honor  of  their  judges  preserves  the 
remnants  of  their  liberty.  The  Roman  civilians  and 
judges  in  like  manner  preserved  their  integrity  and 
good  sense  long  after  Tiberius,  Nero,  and  Domitian 
had  infused  their  government  with  the  most  accursed 
of  all  tyrannies.  Mr.  Hume,  some  years  ago,  pre- 
dicted (and  he  predicted  right)  that  the  tide  of  power 
in  England  was  running  to  the  monarchical  side  and 
that  absolute  monarchy  was  the  true  euthanasia  of 
the  British  Constitution.  This  government,  however, 
is  held  up  to  us  as  a  model  of  wisdom  and  imitation. 
Mr.  Adams  has  devoted  the  labor  of  years  to  point 
out  the  evils  to  which  free  governments  are  incident, 
and  to  warn  mankind  against  them.  I  thank  him  for 
his  learned  labors.  But  I  wish  he  would  also  warn  us 
against  the  dangers  of  the  opposite  course,  to  which 
he  is  steering  our  political  vessel ;  together  with  his 
commentaries  on  Machiavel,  Needham,  and  Stephen 
Boetius,  would  also  give  us  his  commentaries  on  the 
reign  of  Tiberius,  as  delineated  by  the  masterly  hand 
of  Tacitus.  His  writings  have  certainly  the  tendency 
(whatever  may  be  his  intention)  to  make  people  weary 
of  republican  government,  and  to  sigh  for  the  mon- 
archy of  England. 

//To  inculcate  the  doctrine  that  men  are  not  fit  to 
choose  their  own  rulers ;  that  frequent  elections  are 
dangerous  ;  that  distinctions,  not  of  virtue  and  talents, 
but  of  birth  and  fortune,  are  essential  to  the  order  of 
government;    that   riches  and   family  should   be   the 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT         97 

titles  to  preferment,  and  poverty  the  object  of  con- 
tempt, —  such  doctrines  I  deem  heresy  in  American 
politics.  "1 

As  already  narrated,  Mr.  Kent,  in  March,  1797,  re- 
ceived from  Governor  Jay  an  appointment  as  Recorder 
of  the  City  of  New  York.  It  was  the  first  judicial 
office  which  he  had  occupied,  and  was  much  in  ac- 
cordance with  his  tastes  and  habits  of  thought.  It 
was  his  first  impression,  on  learning  of  his  appoint- 
ment, that  this  office  and  that  of  Master  in  Chancery 
would  be  incompatible,  and  that  he  would  be  obliged 
either  to  decline  the  one  or  to  resign  the  other.  In 
May,  1797,  he  wrote  to  his  brother:  — 

James  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

May  18,  1797. 
Dear  Brother,  —  I  have,  as  you  suggest,  as  much  as  I 
can  do  with  my  several  offices  at  present.  But  I  am  no 
monopolizer  in  principle,  and  I  never  shall  indulge  any  in- 
temperate avidity  for  wealth.  Before  I  knew  I  was  Re- 
corder, the  Council  had  adjourned,  and  I  suppose  will  not 
meet  again  till  next  January.  I  cannot  resign  till  they  meet, 
and  then  I  intend  to  resign  either  the  office  of  Recorder,  or 
Master  in  Chancery.  I  take  it  for  granted  I  shall  retain  the 
office  of  Recorder,  tho'  upon  the  whole  less  lucrative  than 
the  other,  but  it  amply  makes  up  that  deficiency  in  respecta- 
bility. The  office  of  Onondaga  Commissioner  I  resigned  as 
soon  as  the  Governor  returned  from  Albany.  It  required 
too  long  an  absence  from  home  to  be  agreeable,  or  profit- 
able, or  consistent  with  requisite  attention  to  other  duties. 

He  soon  discovered,  however,  that  it  was  the  intent 
of  Governor  Jay  that  he  should  fill  both  offices,  and 

7 


98  MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

that  such  an  arrangement  would  be  entirely  feasible 
soon  became  apparent. 

Soon  after  the  death  of  Chancellor  Kent,  in  1847, 
his  son,  Judge  William  Kent,  received  from  the  hand 
of  Hon.  Robert  Morris  extended  memorabilia,  cov- 
ering many  of  his  life  experiences.  Much  of  this 
matter,  although  of  interest,  and  of  great  historical 
value,  has  no  relevancy  to  the  present  narrative.  A 
paragraph,  however,  relates  to  the  appointment  of 
James  Kent  as  Recorder,  and  is  itself  its  own  ex- 
planation :  — 

In  the  year  1796  or  97,  I  do  not  remember  which,  I  was 
chosen  a  member  of  the  Council  of  appointment,  consisting 
of  Judge  Spencer,  Mr.  Onderdonk,  Mr.  Gansevoort,  and 
myself.  By  this  council  the  late  Chancellor  Kent  was  made 
Recorder  of  the  City  of  New  York.  The  circumstances  re- 
lating to  his  appointment  were  as  follows  :  — 

Governor  Jay  nominated  in  the  first  instance  Mr.  Cozine. 
Judge  Spencer  and  myself  voted  against  this  nomination,  not 
for  any  particular  objection  to  the  individual  proposed  by 
the  Governor,  but  from  a  desire  that  the  place  should  be 
filled  by  Mr.  Kent,  then  a  Master  in  Chancery  in  New  York. 
Governor  Jay  expressed  the  highest  opinions  of  Mr.  Kent, 
but  was  induced  to  nominate  Cozine,  on  the  ground  of 
seniority,  Mr.  Kent  being  at  that  time  by  many  years  his 
junior,  both  in  point  of  age  and  standing  at  the  Bar.  Mr. 
Spencer  and  myself,  however,  persisting  in  our  opposidon, 
the  Governor  nominated  Mr.  Kent,  who  was  appointed 
unanimously.  This  appointment  was  no  sooner  announced 
than  the  then  Mr.,  now  Judge,  Spencer,  with  the  vehemence 
for  which  he  was  at  the  time  noted,  inquired  of  the  Gov- 
ernor whom  he  meant  to  nominate  as  Master  in  Chancery, 
in  the  place  of  Mr.  Kent.     To  his  great  mortification  the 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR  KENT         99 

Governor  replied  that  there  was  no  incompatibility  between 
the  two  offices,  and  that  Mr.  Kent's  appointment  to  that  of 
Recorder  did  not  disqualify  him  from  holding  also  that  of 
Master  in  Chancery.  At  this  annunciation  Spencer  became 
very  indignant,  for  he  was  not  friendly  at  the  time  to  Mr. 
Kent,  but  was  actuated  in  promoting  him  to  the  situation  of 
Recorder  by  advice  to  procure  for  his  friend  the  late  Cad- 
wallader  D.  Colden  the  situation  of  Master  in  Chancery. 
The  Governor  having  taken  the  opinion  of  the  members  of 
the  Council  on  this  subject,  we  all,  excepting  Judge  Spencer, 
concurred  in  opinion  with  him. 

The  emoluments  of  the  two  positions  combined  pro- 
duced for  Mr.  Kent  a  yearly  income  entirely  adequate 
to  his  support,  and  enabled  him  not  only  to  add  ex- 
tensively to  his  rapidly  increasing  library,  but  to  invest 
considerable  sums  of  money.  A  letter  to  his  brother, 
written  at  about  this  period,  shows  not  only  that  he 
had  now  become,  in  a  modest  way,  a  capitalist,  but 
touches  also  upon  a  phase  of  social  life  then  but  little 
considered,  but  which,  later  in  the  history  of  our 
country,  like  an  impenetrable  cloud,  obscured  the 
brightness  of  our  political  sun. 

James  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

June  13,  1797. 

.  .  .  You  may  ask  what  I  do  with  all  my  money,  as  I 
make  a  great  deal.  I  can  tell  you.  I  paid  the  first  of  last 
May,  ;^349,  being  the  third  instalment  on  my  house  here. 
I  paid  in  May  ^d^  for  a  wench  I  purchased.  I  have  to 
pay,  the  third  of  July  next,  £,^zZi  being  the  remainder  of 
moneys  I  owe  on  the  Phelps  contract.  That  is  all  I  now 
owe,  and  by  this  means  I  shall  be  able  to  meet  the  July  pay- 
ment, as  I  have  all  to  within  ^40,  and  that  I  hope  to  re- 


loo        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

ceive  by  my  business  by  that  time.  So  you  see  what  full 
occasion  I  have  for  my  money.  But  after  the  third  of  July 
next  I  shall  be  one  of  the  most  independent  of  men.  Not 
a  note  against  me  except  the  last  instalment  of  ^400  on  my 
house  payable  by  bond.  Next  May  I  shall  not  owe  any- 
body on  earth.  In  the  fall,  therefore,  if  you  want,  call 
on  me. 

An  anecdote  related  of  him  at  this  period  well 
illustrates  his  broad  research,  and  also  the  remarkable 
powers  of  his  memory.  A  case  was  tried  before  him 
in  which  Alexander  Hamilton  and  Richard  Harrison 
were  opposing  counsel.  A  nice  point  was  involved, 
and  there  was  an  impression  on  the  minds  of  both  that 
some  old  reporter  had  recorded  a  case,  in  which  a 
similar  point  was  involved  ;  but  neither  of  these  emi- 
nent counsel  was  able  to  give  the  reference.  After 
counsel  had  closed,  Mr.  Recorder  Kent  gave  the  title 
of  this  old  case,  the  proper  reference,  the  page  of  the 
report,  and  the  names  of  the  barristers  engaged.  He 
even  quoted  the  words  of  the  presiding  Justice  who 
delivered  the  opinion. 

Some  years  later,  one  of  the  members  of  the  New 
York  Bar,  and  an  intimate  friend  of  Mr.  Kent,  asked 
him  if  he  recalled  the  incident,  and  why  his  memory 
had  been  so  correct.  In  reply,  Mr.  Kent  said  that 
he  well  remembered  the  circumstance,  and  explained 
it  by  saying  that  on  one  occasion,  when  he  was  mak- 
ing a  journey  to  his  home  at  Poughkecpsie  on  a 
sloop,  —  a  trip  which  usually  occupied  about  a  day, 
—  by  repeated  calms  and  head  winds  he  had  been 
eight  days  in  reaching  his  home.  By  some  curi- 
ous circumstance  he  found,  in  the  cabin  of  the  sloop. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        loi 

a  volume  of  the  reporter  in  queKlion,  and-  that  being 
the  only  book  on  the  vessel,  he  had  read  and  re-read 
every  portion  of  it,  uritil  lie  had  ^Irpoet-comfriitted  the 
entire  volume  to  memory. 

The  same  gentleman,  in  speaking  of  the  incident, 
said  that  Mr,  Kent's  memory  for  detail  was  surpris- 
ingly accurate,  even  as  to  incidents  which  were  out- 
side of  the  limits  of  his  profession.  He  related  that 
when  he  was  a  student  at  law,  in  Mr.  Kent's  office, 
after  he  had  retired  from  his  office  of  Chancellor,  Mr. 
Kent  was  visited  one  day  by  a  lawyer  from  Pough- 
keepsie,  who  made  inquiry  if  a  certain  man,  a  soldier, 
and  a  resident  of  Poughkecpsie,  was  alive  at  a  certain 
time,  shortly  after  the  close  of  the  Revolution. 

Mr.  Kent  recalled  the  man  at  once,  said  that  he  was 
alive  at  the  time  in  question,  and  lived  in  a  certain 
house,  just  outside  the  village.  He  recalled  an  after- 
noon drive  he  had  taken  with  his  wife,  passing  the 
house,  which  stood  close  to  the  road,  and  seeing  over 
the  lower  half  of  a  Dutch  door  a  soldier's  cap  and 
coat  hanging  upon  the  wall,  together  with  other  mi- 
nute details  of  the  drive. 

His  duties  as  Recorder  were  occasionally  varied  by 
presiding  in  the  Mayor's  Court,  in  the  absence  of  that 
functionary,  as  appears  by  a  letter  addressed  to  his 
brother  in  August,  1797:  — 

James  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

The  Mayor  has  been  absent  from  the  city  for  four  weeks 
past,  and  I  have  had,  as  presiding  magistrate  in  his  absence, 
my  hands  full  of  business,  respecting  the  Police  of  the  City, 
and  the  Cause  of  Justice.     I  held  one  Mayor's  Court  en- 


102        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR    KENT 

tirely  alone,  ana  at  whjch  seventy-four  causes  were  noticed 
for  trial.  It  has  become  time  for  me  to  have  a  little  relax- 
ation. Th«  gre^t  thing  I  h;(tvfi  to  regret  is  the  omission  of 
literary  pursuits,  impossible  in  the  hurry,  and  amidst  the 
avocations  which  press  upon  me.  This  makes  me  long, 
ardently  long  for  a  more  retired  and  tranquil  life.  This  I 
can  never  expect  in  town  ;  and  perhaps  while  one  is  at 
business  it  is  best  to  have  as  much  as  you  can  do,  so  as  to 
have  it  sooner  at  an  end. 

His  increased  professional  cares  did  not  prevent  his 
continued  attention  to  classical  and  polite  literature. 
Early  in  this  narrative  was  shown  the  care  and  system 
with  which  he  apportioned  his  time,  and  the  zeal  with 
which  he  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  the  ancient 
classics.  This  habit,  then  formed,  was  not  discon- 
tinued, although  labors  multiplied  upon  him.  It  was 
in  the  summer  of  1786  that  his  resolve  was  made 
that  he  would  revive  and  continue  his  study  of  the 
classics.    Four  years  later  he  wrote  to  his  brother:  — 

James  Kent  to  Moss  Kejit,  Jr. 

I  have  finished  second  Coke  in  law,  and  begun  a  course 
of  Chancery  studies.  I  have  finished  the  two  volumes  of 
T^l^maque  ^  in  French,  and  am  beginning  Corneille.  I 
think  I  have  acquired  the  language  with  great  facility,  and 
can  read  it  with  some  degree  of  fluency.  I  have  finished 
Ovid  in  Latin,  and  am  near  through  the  second  volume  of 
Horace  again.  Greek  is  the  most  difficult.  I  apprehend 
Lucian  to  be  harder  than  Homer,  but  I  have  read  about 
half  of  him,  and  shall  arrive  with  joy  to  the  end  by  April, 
and  with  anxiety  to  pay  my  respects  to  the  Mantuan  Bard.*^ 

^  Fenelon. 

2  "  Mantua  me  genuit :  Calabri  rapuere :  tenet  nunc 
Parthenope  ;  cecini  pascua,  rura,  duces." 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        103 

Such  has  been  my  progress  in  classical  studies  since  your 
departure.  I  am  not  ashamed  to  acknowledge  to  you  the 
extent  of  my  progress,  and  I  contemplate  the  rich  and  ex- 
tensive field  that  it  opens,  and  the  pure  and  honorable 
pleasure  that  it  yields  with  great  satisfaction. 

A  few  months  later  he  again  writes :  — 

I  have  read  Sallust's  history  of  Catiline's  conspiracy.  He, 
Livy,  and  Tacitus  are  the  three  greatest  historians  in  the 
Roman  history,  and  all  three  have  been  mutilated  by  time, 
or  the  more  cruel  depredations  of  superstition,  and  are  only 
presented  to  us  in  fragments.  Sallust  is  vastly  concise  and 
he  appears,  in  some  measure,  to  make  war  on  grammar  and 
orthography,  as  you  will  find  when  you  come  to  peruse 
him.  He  uses  the  infinitive  mood  for  the  indicative,  and 
he  had  a  mode  of  spelling  which  was  obsolete  in  the  Au- 
gustan Age. 

I  have  read  Buffon's  Natural  History,  a  great  and  magni- 
ficent work,  and  not  more  distinguished  for  penetration  and 
novelty  of  thought  than  for  elegance  of  expression.  I  wish 
I  had  time  to  send  you  the  heads  of  it.  I  should  be 
exceedingly  fond  of  reading  so  eloquent  and  engaging  a 
writer  in  the  original.  I  am  on  the  eighth  Iliad,  where  the 
Greeks  begin  to  feel  the  necessity  of  Achilles,  and  to  yield 
to  the  inevitable  progress  of  Hector. 

In  July,  1 79 1,  he  wrote  :  — 

I  have  pursued  routine  of  studies  as  usual,  I  have  just 
received  from  Rivington  the  Letters  of  Madame  de  S^vign^, 
in  eight  volumes,  and  also  Xenophon's  Cyropasdia,  by  which 
you  may  judge  of  my  progress  in  Greek  and  French. 

In  March,  1792,  he  again  wrote  to  his  brother, 
Moss  Kent:  — 


I04        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

If  you  are  then  reading  the  Orations  of  Demosthenes,  you 
have  the  consolation  of  reading  the  most  perfect  production, 
according  to  Hume,  in  the  most  perfect  language,  according 
to  Blair,  and  all  other  celebrated  critics.  I  have  just  been 
reading  a  second  time  Smith's  Inquiry,^  and  Warburton's 
Legation,^  two  of  the  ablest  system  writers  of  any  age  or 
nation.  The  latter  is  a  most  singular  performance.  He 
enters,  as  you  know,  minutely  and  most  deeply  into  the 
knowledge,  with  an  exuberant  profusion.  He  is  too  fond, 
however,  of  allegorizing  all  the  ancient  poets,  thereby  ob- 
scuring the  most  valuable  attribute,  simplicity. 

In  the  autumn  of  the  year  1795,  it  will  be  recalled, 
Mr.  Kent  was  obliged  to  leave  New  York,  with  his 
family,  and  seek  refuge  in  Poughkeepsie,  on  account 
of  the  prevalence  of  the  yellow  fever  in  the  metropo- 
lis.^ The  time  of  his  absence  was  profitably  employed 
in  reading,  and  he  made  a  minute  record  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  this  enforced  vacation  was  passed. 

Memoranda   of  my  absence  from    New   York  in  the 
Autiunn  of  lygs,  071  account  of  the  Yellow  Fever. 

"  I  left  New  York,  with  my  family,  on  account  of 
the  prevailing  epidemic  of  bilious  fever,  September 
I7>  1795)  s"d  went  to  Poughkeepsie,  and  boarded 
with  T.  Bailey,  Esq.,  and  returned  again  to  the  city, 
October  31,  1795.  During  my  exile  I  spent  my  time 
most  happily  in  reading,  and  in  little  country  excur- 
sions, as  to  Sharon,  and  to  my  friends  in  the  neigh- 

^  Adam  Smith,  Inquiry  iitto  the  A^ature  and  Causes  of  the  Wealth  of 
Nations. 

2  William  Warburton,  The  Divine  Legation  of  Moses  Demonstrated 
on  the  Principles  of  a  Religious  Deist. 

*  Supra,  p.  79. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        105 

borhood  of  Poughkeepsie.  I  read,  or  ran  over  in 
that  time,  Whittaker's  History  of  Manchester ;  Bruce's 
Travels ;  Cook's  Third,  or  Last,  Voyage ;  Savary's 
Letters  on  Greece ;  Voltaire's  Essay  on  General  His- 
tory ;  Voltaire's  Miscellaneous  Historical  Tracts  ; 
Russell's  Modern  Europe;  Dr.  Aiken's  Letters  to 
his  Son  ;  Ferguson's  Essay  on  Civil  Society ;  Beattie's 
Moral  Essays ;   Sir  W.  Temple's  Works. 

"  I  mention  this  catalogue  as  evidence  of  the  im- 
mense resource,  the  pure  and  delightful  amusement, 
that  books  afford  to  those  who  have  taste  or  fondness 
for  them  in  the  leisure  of  country  retirement.  And 
it  fortunately  happened  that  most  of  the  authors,  and 
especially  Whittaker,  Bruce,  Cook,  Voltaire's  Gen- 
eral History,  and  the  History  of  the  Buccaneers,  and 
Temple,  were  to  me  works  not  only  new,  but  ex- 
tremely instructive  and  interesting. 

"  During  my  absence  from  New  York,  five  hundred 
and  sixty-eight  persons  died  of  the  fever,  according 
to  the  reports  of  the  Health  Committee.  The  three 
days  before  I  left  it,  forty-three  persons  were  re- 
ported to  have  died,  and  I  conclude  that,  from  the 
first  of  August  to  the  first  of  November,  about  seven 
hundred  persons  fell  a  sacrifice  to  the  sickness  in 
New  York,  and  the  reports  of  the  Health  Committee 
were  about  that  number.  Several,  however,  who  took 
it  in  New  York  died  in  the  country,  and  were  not 
included  in  the  reports  of  the  Health  Committee,  and 
many  people  suppose  that  a  great  many  died  in  the 
city  and  were  not  reported  by  the  committee.  The 
fever  began  about  the  first  of  August,  and  ceased 
about  the  first  of  November.     The  summer  had  been 


io6        ^lEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

the  most  remarkably  and  oppressively  hot  of  any 
within  my  remembrance.  The  heat  continued  almost 
to  October.  In  September  the  city  was  also  misera- 
bly afflicted  with  mosquitoes.  Very  few  of  the  citi- 
zens of  any  note  died.  Those  who  died  were  chiefly 
new  immigrants  from  Ireland  and  obscure  young 
people.  I  suppose  one  half  of  the  city  fled  into  the 
country.  The  terror  for  a  few  weeks  was  very  great. 
All  intercourse  between  the  city  and  Philadelphia,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  New  Haven,  on  the  other,  was  pro- 
hibited by  those  cities." 

In  July,  1796,  as  was  frequently  his  custom,  he  re- 
ported to  his  brother  his  progress  in  study  and  in  the 
collection  of  books. 

James  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

July  17,  1796. 
I  keep  making  daily  additions  to  my  library,  which  I 
regard  as  the  repository  of  my  happiest  pursuits.  I  long 
to  see  the  New  American  Register  for  1795,  ^'^^  ^°  ^^^ 
in  one  condensed  view  the  History,  Politics,  and  Literature 
of  Europe.  I  own  Voltaire  complete,  in  French,  in  92 
vols.;  Mably  complete,  in  13  vols.;  European  Magazine 
complete,  in  25  vols.;  New  American  Register,  in  15  vols. 
Here  you  see  what  a  store  of  learning  I  have  (besides  the 
Encyclopaedia,  which  is  a  library  by  itself)  collected  in 
those  single  sets.  I  got  the  other  day  President  Gognet's 
Origin  of  Laws,  Arts,  etc.,  a  most  learned  and  interesting 
work ;  the  History  of  Louisiana,  which  contains  a  great  deal 
of  curious  learning  respecting  the  Mississippi  country,  and 
the  best  novels  of  Fielding  and  Richardson,  the  classics  in 
romance. 


MEMOIRS   OF  CHANCELLOR   KENT        107 

In  February,  1798,  he  again  reports:  — 

...  To  inform  you  of  my  literary  history  since  your 
departure,  be  it  known  that  I  have  finislied  Sallust,  and 
was  this  morning  near  half  thro'  the  3d  book  of  the  An- 
nals of  Tacitus.  I  have  this  day  finished  the  perusal  of 
all  my  mighty  and  voluminous  law  collections.  Perhaps  I 
have  glanced  over  also  a  couple  of  volumes  of  the  European 
Magazine.  Your  sister  and  I  have  spent  some  most  happy 
evenings  alone  by  the  fire  in  various  and  desultoiy  reading, 
but  generally  it  is  my  lot  to  have  somebody  almost  every 
night  to  smoke  a  pipe,  or  drink  a  glass  of  wine,  and  chat 
on  the  news  and  politics  of  the  day. 


io8        MEMOIRS  OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 


V 


"  TN  February,  1798,"  writes  Chancellor  Kent,  in 
Jl  his  "  Memoranda,"  "  I  was  appointed  to  the 
office  of  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court.  This  was 
the  grand  object  of  my  ambition  for  several  years 
past.  It  appeared  to  me  to  be  the  true  situation  for 
the  display  of  my  knowledge,  talents,  and  virtue, 
the  happy  mean  of  placing  me  beyond  the  crowd 
and  pestilence  of  the  city,  of  giving  me  opportunities 
to  travel,  and  to  follow  literary  pursuits,  — a  taste  for 
which  is,  after  all,  the  most  solid  and  permanent  of 
all  sublunary  enjoyments.  By  the  acceptance  of  this 
office  I  renounced  all  my  offices  in  New  York,  with 
all  their  accumulated  income,  and  all  my  prospects 
of  wealth,  for  a  moderate  but  permanent  support, 
for  leisure  to  study,  for  more  rural  enjoyments,  and 
for  a  more  dignified  reputation.  Whether  or  no  I 
judged  well  for  my  happiness  must  be  left  to  the 
event  to  decide,  and  this  depends  also  in  a  great  de- 
gree upon  my  own  taste  and  disposition.  This  is 
certain,  that  the  mere  men  of  business  and  of  pleas- 
ure, who  estimate  happiness  by  income,  and  by  the 
splendid  luxuries  of  the  city  life,  all  condemned  my 
choice  as  mad  and  absurd.  But  men  of  patriotism 
and  reflection,  who  thought  less  of  riches  and  more 
of  character,  if  they  did  not  approve,  were  yet  more 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        109 

slow  to  condemn.  My  present  impression  is  so  un- 
favorable to  public  liberality  and  public  justice,  and 
to  the  belief  of  the  eventual  success  and  credit  of  firm 
and  upright  government,  that  I  think  it  questionable 
whether  I  calculated  well  or  ill  when  I  abandoned 
the  offices  of  Recorder  and  Master  and  took  that  of 
Judge. 

"  In  April,  1798,1  removed  to  Poughkeepsie  and 
found  myself  upon  my  ancient  ground,  after  an  ab- 
sence of  five  years.  But  so  great  and  so  rapid  a 
change  in  so  short  a  space  of  time  few  persons  have 
met  with.  I  went  to  New  York  poor,  without  patron- 
age, and  had  a  most  gloomy  and  distressing  intro- 
duction to  the  city  life.  In  five  years  I  had  run 
through  several  honorable  offices  and  attained  one 
of  the  highest  respect  in  the  community.  I  had 
collected  not  only  a  large  and  valuable  library,  and  a 
neat  and  valuable  stock  of  furniture,  but  I  returned  say 
at  least  ;^iooo  richer  than  when  I  went.  I  brought 
back  with  me  a  little  daughter  about  the  age  of  the 
one  that  I  carried  down  and  lost,  and  my  wife  had, 
by  her  city  life,  greatly  enlarged  her  mind,  corrected 
and  cultivated  her  taste,  and,  without  perceptible  dim- 
inution of  her  personal  charms,  had  added  exceed- 
ingly to  her  various  and  elegant  accomplishments. 

"  No  sooner  had  I  settled  myself  at  Poughkeepsie 
than  I  resumed  my  long  lost  acquaintance  with  the 
classic  writers.  In  the  summer  of  1798  I  performed 
the  Western  and  Southern  Circuits ;  1  found  means 
between  May  and  January  to  read  Horace  and  Vir- 
gil, Vertot's  Malta,  De  Pan  on  the  Greeks,  Brown, 
Vezey,  Ambler,  Anstruther,  2d  vol.  Black's  Reports, 


no       MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

Fonblanque's  Equity  and  a  great  variety  of  miscel- 
laneous reading.  I  perceived,  this  year,  my  love  of 
home  and  my  vivid  and  exclusive  fondness  and  es- 
teem for  my  wife  to  have  received  strength  and 
addition. 

"  I  find  myself  now  in  the  middle  of  life,  and  a  sense 
of  its  value  and  rapidity  to  be  greatly  increased  in 
my  reflections.  This  urges  upon  me  constantly  the 
necessity  of  improving  time  with  the  utmost  diligence, 
and  constantly  to  make  it  subservient  to  all  the  noble 
purposes  of  social  and  domestic  happiness,  of  public 
and  private  duty." 

The  commission  of  James  Kent  as  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  New  York,  signed 
by  John  Jay,  Governor,  bears  date  June  i6,  1798. 
The  appointment  had  been  presaged  by  his  brother, 
as  appears  by  a  letter  bearing  date  of  January  18, 
1798. 

Moss  Kent  to  James  Kent. 

I  observe  by  the  Albany  papers  that  Judge  Hobart  is 
elected  a  Senator.  I  conclude  therefore  that  he  will  imme- 
diately resign  his  seat  on  the  Bench.  There  will  be  two 
vacancies  in  our  Supreme  Court  in  a  few  weeks,  and  you 
will  undoubtedly  have  the  offer  of  one  of  the  appointments, 
as  Governor  Jay  has  a  Council  that  will  unanimously  con- 
cur in  his  nomination.  I  hope  and  believe  that  you  will 
accept ;  though  the  salary  will  be  less  than  the  income  of 
your  present  business,  you  will  have  vastly  more  leisure 
for  study,  and  you  will  be  enabled  to  choose  any  place  of 
residence  within  the  State  that  shall  be  most  agreeable  to 
your  taste.  I  think  it  likely  that  I  shall  be  elected  one  of 
the  Senators  of  this  district  next  spring,  and  one  very  great 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        m 

inducement  to  me  to  wish  it  is  that  I  should,  in  that  case, 
have  the  pleasure  of  spending  the  winters  with  you  in 
Albany,  as  you  would  be  obliged  to  attend  there  as  one  of 
the  Council  of  Revision  should  you  be  appointed  a  Judge ; 
this  is,  however,  between  ourselves.  .  .  . 

Further  personal  record  of  this  event,  marking  so 
important  an  era  in  his  life,  is  found  in  a  letter  from 
James  Kent  to  his  brother,  under  date  of  February 
25,  1798. 

James  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

.  .  .  You  have  heard  of  my  appointment  to  the  Bench 
of  the  Supreme  Court.  It  is  an  office  agreeable  to  me,  and 
I  have  accordingly  sold  my  house  and  hired  one  at  Pough- 
keepsie  for  a  year,  whither  I  shall  remove  early  in  April. 
Where  I  shall  permanently  settle  is  uncertain.  The  city 
will  be  left  by  me  with  satisfaction ;  a  country  residence 
has  infinitely  more  charms  and  conduces  to  a  more  tranquil 
and  literary  life.  Your  little  niece  grows  finely.  She  is 
fat  and  sweet  and  full  of  play  and  prattle.  .  .  . 

I  am  reading  to-day,  during  the  cessation  of  business, 
the  description  of  Germany  given  in  a  late  tour,  and  the 
"History  of  the  Knights  of  Malta"  by  the  Abb^  Vertot,  a 
most  lively  and  agreeable  historian.  The  third  Tuesday  in 
April  I  shall  of  course  be  in  Albany,  where  you  will  proba- 
bly hear  from  me,  and  learn  the  Spring  Circuit  that  will 
be  assigned  to  me. 

James  Kent,  when  he  reached  the  height  toward 
which  his  ambition  had  long  impelled  him,  was  not 
quite  thirty-five  years  of  age.  In  a  discourse  on  the 
life,  character,  and  public  services  of  James  Kent,  de- 
livered before  the  judiciary  and  Bar  of  the  city  and 


112        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR    KENT 

State  of  New  York,  in  April,  1848,  by  Hon.  John 
Duer,  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made,^  that 
eminent  member  of  the  judiciary  characterized  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  State,  at  the  time  when  the  subject 
of  his  eulogy  ascended  the  Bench,  in  these  words  :  — 
"  The  condition  of  the  Supreme  Court  at  the  time 
of  his  accession  to  the  Bench  was  probably  much 
the  same  as  it  had  been,  with  little  variation,  from 
the  close  of  the  Revolution.  It  was  not  a  condi- 
tion that  reflected  credit  on  the  jurisprudence  of 
the  State ;  it  was  not  such  as  the  character  and  the 
honor  of  the  State  and  the  interests  of  the  public 
demanded.  The  judges,  although  not  distinguished 
by  any  marked  superiority,  were  by  no  means  defi- 
cient in  learning  or  ability ;  but  it  was  in  a  very  im- 
perfect and  unsatisfactory  manner  that  their  duties 
were  discharged.  There  was  not  only  a  great  delay 
in  the  determination  of  causes,  —  a  delay  not  at  all 
excused  by  the  multiplicity  of  business,  —  but  the  de- 
cisions, when  pronounced,  were  far  from  supplying  the 
requisite  proof  of  a  mature  consideration.  It  was 
evident  that  they  were  not  the  fruit  of  that  careful 
and  laborious  investigation  which  is  essential  to  the 
proper  discharge  of  the  judicial  functions;  and  the 
authority  they  might  otherwise  have  claimed  was 
greatly  impaired  by  those  frequent  differences  in 
opinion  that  are  the  necessary  result  of  imperfect  ex- 
amination and  study.  It  was  seldom  that  the  opinions 
of  the  judges,  even  in  the  most  important  cases,  were 
reduced  to  writing,  and  as  no  reports  were  then  pub- 
lished, and  no  records  preserved  of  the  grounds  on 

1  Sitp}-a,  p.  29. 


MEMOIRS  OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        113 

which  their  decisions  were  placed,  the  cases  were 
numerous  in  which  they  had  no  rules  to  direct,  no 
precedents  to  govern  them. 

"  Of  this  state  of  things  the  inevitable  consequences 
were  vacillation,  contradictions,  confusion,  and  un- 
certainty. It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  this 
defective  administration  of  the  law  had  a  most  un- 
favorable influence  on  the  character  and  pursuits  of 
the  Bar;  for  when  cases  are  slightly  examined  and 
rashly  decided  by  the  judges,  the  principal  motives 
for  a  diligent  preparation  on  the  part  of  counsel 
cease  to  exist.  No  further  observations  can  be  requi- 
site to  show  that,  in  order  to  redeem  the  character  of 
the  Bench  and  of  the  Bar,  and  the  honor  of  the  State, 
a  great  revolution  was  necessary  to  be  effected ;  and 
it  was  effected,  mainly  by  the  efforts  and  by  the  ex- 
ample of  the  man  who,  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-five, 
was  now  raised  to  the  Bench. 

"  As  soon  as  his  seat  was  taken,  his  determination 
was  made  that  he  would  examine  for  himself  every 
case  not  decided  on  the  hearing ;  and  in  such  exam- 
ination would  not  confine  himself  to  the  cases  and 
authorities  cited  on  the  argument,  but  would  embrace 
in  his  researches  all  the  law  justly  applicable  to  the 
questions  to  be  determined ;  and  that  in  each  case  he 
would  embody  the  result  of  his  examination  in  a 
written  opinion.  Accordingly,  at  the  second  term 
that  followed  his  appointment,  in  his  first  meeting  for 
consultation  with  his  brethren,  and  to  their  great  as- 
tonishment, he  produced  a  written  opinion  in  every 
case  that  had  been  reserved  for  decision ;  and  as  these 
opinions  were  carefully  prepared,  were  clear  in  style, 

8 


114        iSIEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

forcible  in  reasoning,  and  well  sustained  by  a  refer- 
ence to  authorities,  his  brethren,  even  when  they  dis- 
sented from  his  conclusions,  were  in  no  condition  to 
controvert  and  oppose  them.  Hence  they  at  once 
understood  and  felt  that  their  own  position  was 
materially  changed.  It  was  evident  that  they  must 
either  surrender  to  their  junior  brother  —  their  junior 
in  station  and  far  their  junior  in  years  —  the  effective 
control  and  administration  of  all  the  important  busi- 
ness of  the  court,  or  if  at  all  solicitous  to  maintain 
their  own  character  and  dignity,  must  follow  his 
example. 

"  Fortunately  for  themselves  and  the  public,  it  was 
upon  the  latter  course  that  they  resolved.  From  that 
time  there  was  a  constant  and  most  honorable  emula- 
tion in  the  discharge  of  their  weighty  duties,  and  the 
result  was  that,  in  the  space  of  a  few  years,  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  this  State  was  placed  on  an  elevation 
—  an  elevation  of  influence,  dignity,  and  authority  — 
that  from  that  day  to  the  present,  with  a  just  pride  we 
may  affirm,  it  has  continued  to  maintain.   .   .  . 

"  Although  his  brethren  on  the  Bench,  during  this 
period,  emulated  his  diligence,  and  contributed  by 
their  efforts  to  advance  or  sustain  the  reputation  of 
the  court,  yet  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  the  opinions 
that  he  delivered  were  distinguished  by  qualities  that 
in  those  of  his  brethren  were  rarely  displayed,  or  dis- 
played only  in  an  inferior  degree.  There  was  a  clearly 
defined  and  marked  superiority  that  he  was  soon  ad- 
mitted to  possess,  and  which  he  retained  without  dis- 
pute, during  the  whole  period  of  his  continuance  on 
the  Bench.  .  .  .  What,  then,  are  the  causes  to  which 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        115 

his  superiority  over  his  brethren  must  be  attributed  ? 
.  .  .  He  had  cultivated  his  mind  in  all  its  powers  and 
faculties  —  imaginative  and  moral,  as  well  as  purely- 
intellectual  —  with  far  greater  care  and  assiduity. 
His  studies  had  not  only  been  more  extensive  and 
various,  but  more  thorough,  systematic,  and  profound. 
His  learning  not  only  embraced  a  larger  compass  in 
its  subjects,  but  was  firmer  in  its  principles  and  more 
scientific  in  its  arrangement. 

"  From  his  far  greater  intimacy  with  the  classic 
writers  of  antiquity  and  with  the  great  masters  of 
composition  in  our  own  language,  he  derived  eminent 
advantages.  To  this  intimacy,  the  justness,  elevation, 
and  purity  of  his  taste  must  be  attributed ;  it  was  this 
intimacy  that  had  endowed  him  with  a  command  and 
mastery  of  language  that  enabled  him  to  express  his 
thoughts,  on  every  subject  to  which  they  were  directed, 
with  such  remarkable  facility,  precision,  perspicuity, 
and  force.  It  was  this  intimacy  that  gave  choice  and 
variety,  and  occasionally  splendor  to  his  diction,  and 
enriched  his  style  with  apt  and  varied  illustrations. 
In  short,  it  was  the  intrinsic  and  peculiar  excellence 
of  his  opinions,  in  matter  and  style,  that  gave  to  them 
a  paramount  authority,  and  to  their  author  his  wide- 
spread and  rapidly  increasing  reputation." 

This  extended  quotation  from  the  record  of  a  con- 
temporary of  Judge  Kent  has  been  made,  not  so  much 
because  the  words  uttered  are  the  words  of  a  eulogist, 
but  chiefly  because  of  their  historic  interest,  and  be- 
cause they  bear  the  evidence  of  a  sincere  and  unbiased 
consideration  of  the  effect  which  this  man's  elevation 
to  the  Bench  produced  upon  the  judicial  system  of  his 
State. 


ii6        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

In  September,  1828,  Thomas  Washington,  of  Nash- 
ville, Tennessee,  a  distinguished  member  of  the  Bar, 
and  introduced  by  Governor  Carroll,  of  that  State, 
addressed  a  letter  to  Chancellor  Kent,  in  which  he 
begged  to  be  told  the  secret  of  his  success  in  life. 
The  Chancellor,  after  repeated  requests,  made  an  ex- 
tended reply,  in  which  he  gave  to  his  correspondent  a 
sketch  of  his  life's  experiences,  much  of  which  was 
drawn  from  the  memoranda  which  have  already  been 
so  copiously  quoted.  The  Chancellor  wrote  in  con- 
fidence, and  with  freedom  and  simplicity.  Fortu- 
nately, a  copy  of  this  epistle  has  been  preserved,  and 
from  it  is  drawn  his  own  statement  concerning  his 
elevation  to  the  Supreme  Bench,  and  the  effect  of 
that  event  upon  the  judicial  system. 

"In  February,  1798,"  wrote  Chancellor  Kent,  "I 
was  offered  by  Governor  Jay,  and  accepted,  the  office 
of  youngest  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court.  This  was 
the  summit  of  my  ambition.  My  object  was  to  retire 
back  to  Poughkeepsie  and  resume  my  studies  and  ride 
the  circuits  and  inhale  country  air  and  enjoy  otitim 
aun  dignitatc.  I  never  dreamed  of  volumes  of  re- 
ports and  written  opinions.  Such  things  were  not 
then  thought  of  I  retired  back  to  Poughkeepsie,  in 
the  spring  of  1798,  and  in  that  summer  rode  all  over 
the  western  wilderness  and  was  delighted.  I  returned 
home  and  began  my  Greek,  and  Latin,  and  French, 
and  English,  and  law  classics  as  formerly,  and  made 
wonderful  progress  in  books  that  year.  In  1799  I 
was  obliged  to  remove  to  Albany  in  order  that  I  might 
not  be  too  much  from  home,  and  there  I  remained 
stationary  for  twenty-four  years. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR  KENT        117 

r 

"  When  I  came  to  the  Bench  there  were  no  reports 
or  State  precedents.  The  opinions  from  the  Bench 
were  dehvered  07'e  temis.  We  had  no  law  of  our  own, 
and  nobody  knew  what  it  was.  I  first  introduced  a 
thorough  examination  of  cases  and  written  opinions. 
In  January,  1799,  the  second  case  reported  in  first 
Johnson's  cases,  of  Ludlow  v.  Dale,  is  a  sample  of  the 
earliest.  The  judges,  when  we  met,  all  assumed  that 
foreign  sentences  were  only  good  prijna  facie.  I  pre- 
sented and  read  my  written  opinion  that  they  were 
conclusive,  and  they  all  gave  up  to  me,  and  so  I  read 
it  in  court  as  it  stands.  This  was  the  commencement 
of  a  new  plan,  and  then  was  laid  the  first  stone  in  the 
subsequently  erected  temple  of  our  jurisprudence. 

"Between  that  time  and  1804  I  rode  my  share  of 
circuits,  attended  all  the  terms,  and  was  never  absent, 
and  was  always  ready  in  every  case  by  the  day.  I 
read  in  that  time  Valin  and  Emerigon,  and  completely 
abridged  the  latter,  and  made  copious  digests  of  all 
the  English  law  reports  and  treatises  as  they  came 
out.  I  made  much  use  of  the  Corpus  Juris,  and  as  the 
judges  (Livingston  excepted)  knew  nothing  of  French 
or  civil  law,  I  had  immense  advantage  over  them.  I 
could  generally  put  my  brethren  to  rout  and  carry 
my  point  by  my  mysterious  wand  of  French  and  civil 
law.  The  judges  were  Republicans  and  very  kindly 
disposed  to  everything  that  was  French,  and  this  en- 
abled me,  without  exciting  any  alarm  or  jealousy,  to 
make  free  use  of  such  authorities  and  thereby  enrich 
our  commercial  law. 

"  I  gradually  acquired  preponderating  influence 
with  my  brethren,  and  the  volumes  in  Johnson,  after 


ii8        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

I  became  Chief-Justice,  in  1804,  show  it.  The  first 
practice  was  for  each  judge  to  give  his  portion  of 
opinions,  when  we  all  agreed,  but  that  gradually  fell 
off,  and,  for  the  last  two  or  three  years  before  I  left  the 
Bench,  I  gave  the  most  of  them.  I  remember  that  in 
eighth  Johnson  all  the  opinions  for  one  term  are  ^ per 
curiam'  The  fact  is  I  wrote  them  all  and  proposed 
that  course  to  avoid  exciting  jealousy,  and  many  2, per 
curiam  opinion  was  so  inserted  for  that  reason. 

"  Many  of  the  cases  decided  during  the  sixteen 
years  I  was  in  the  Supreme  Court  were  labored  by 
me  most  unmercifully,  but  it  was  necessary  under  the 
circumstances,  in  order  to  subdue  opposition.  We 
had  but  few  American  precedents.  Our  judges  were 
democratic,  and  my  brother  Spencer  particularly,  of 
a  bold,  vigorous,  dogmatic  mind  and  overbearing 
manner.  English  authority  did  not  stand  very  high 
in  those  early  feverish  times,  and  this  led  me  a  hun- 
dred times  to  attempt  to  bear  down  opposition,  or 
shame  it  by  exhaustive  research  and  overwhelming 
authority.  Our  jurisprudence  was,  on  the  whole,  im- 
proved by  it.  My  mind  certainly  was  roused,  and 
was  always  kept  ardent  and  inflamed  by  collision." 

In  1798,  as  Chancellor  Kent  has  recorded,  he  dis- 
posed of  his  house  in  New  York  and  returned  to  his 
old  home  at  Poughkeepsie.  He  had  never  been  cap- 
tivated by  the  pleasures  of  city  life,  and  preferred 
rather  the  quiet  of  the  country  as  conducive  to  study 
and  reflection.  It  was  therefore  with  pleasure  that  he 
embraced  the  opportunity  of  a  change  of  residence, 
and  returned  to  his  former  home  and  that  of  his  wife 
at  Poughkeepsie.    He  soon  discovered,  however,  that 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR    KENT        119 

his  duties  required  him  to  be  absent  much  of  the  time 
from  his  home,  and  that  a  residence  at  Albany  would 
enable  him  to  enjoy  much  more  of  the  home  life  and 
association  with  his  wife  and  family.  He  therefore 
again  removed,  and  to  Albany. 

The  social  life  at  Albany  in  which  Mr.  Kent  moved, 
and  of  which  in  a  measure  he  was  the  centre,  as  a 
judge  and  afterward  as  chancellor,  was  at  that  period 
particularly  charming  and  pleasing  to  his  tastes  and 
character.  The  enormous  development  which  he  had 
introduced  in  the  systematic  study  of  law,  the  care, 
precision,  and  learning  which  were  brought  to  the 
elucidation  of  problems  then  new  and  not  clearly  un- 
derstood, while  with  masterly  pen  he  was  striving  to 
inject  into  the  jurisprudence  of  his  State  the  enlight- 
ened comprehension  of  the  science  of  law  and  the  prin- 
ciples of  equity  practice,  had  naturally  drawn  about 
the  court  the  leading  lawyers  and  thinkers  of  the  day. 
Untrammelled  by  the  introduction  of  statutory  enact- 
ments, infringing  upon  and  confusing  the  prerogatives 
of  the  court,  limiting  and  hindering  its  expansion,  the 
field  was  fair  for  individual  opinion  and  ample  and  ex- 
haustive study  and  research,  which  would  enable  the 
Chancellor  to  grasp  the  fundamental  principle  and 
upon  that  build  up  the  unperishable  fabric  of  the  law 
as  at  present  understood.  Cumbersome  and  intricate 
as  the  old  practice  of  the  Court  of  Chancery  was,  it 
still  had  the  attribute  of  elasticity. 

The  Chancellor  determined  the  practice,  not  the 
legislature,  which  could  not  foresee  all  contingencies, 
and  substantial  justice  was  done,  without  the  inter- 
vention of  codes  and  statutes.     There  was  also  lack- 


I20       MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

ing  the  strict  observance  of  formal  practice,  now  so 
marked  a  characteristic  of  our  courts.  The  Chancel- 
lor always  sat  at  any  time,  unless  engaged  in  the 
duties  of  Council  of  Revision,  and  was  ever  ready  to 
hear  and  determine  what  might  require  attention. 
The  simple  character  of  the  times  enabled  the  office 
of  the  Chancellor  to  be  the  Court  of  Chancery,  and 
as  his  office  was  his  study  at  his  home,  it  came  to  be 
an  established  custom  for  the  lawyers  to  collect  in  the 
afternoon  or  after  dinner,  then  usually  taken  at  five 
P.  M.  As  a  natural  sequence  it  was  not  surprising  that 
the  collection  in  Mr.  Kent's  parlor  partook  some- 
what of  the  nature  of  a  levee,  the  Chancellor  holding 
court  in  his  study,  and  the  chancery  lawyers  and 
younger  members  of  the  bar  drinking  tea  and  chat- 
ting with  the  ladies.  Mrs.  Kent  frequently  referred 
to  this  as  perhaps  the  most  interesting  period  of  her 
life,  much  of  which  was  due  to  her  own  attractive 
qualities,  lively  wit,  elegance,  and  cultivation. 

But  this  is  a  digression,  in  advance  of  the  narrative. 

At  the  end  of  six  years  of  service  as  Associate 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  Mr.  Kent  was  in 
1804  advanced  to  the  position  of  Chief-Justice.  The 
vacancy  was  caused  by  the  election  to  the  office  of 
Governor  of  the  State,  of  Chief-Justice  Morgan  Lewis, 
who  for  many  years  had  been  in  close  and  friendly 
relations  with  Judge  Kent.  At  this  time  party  politics 
and  partisan  bias  ran  high.  Judge  Lewis  was  an 
ardent  Republican,  or  anti-Federalist,  while  Judge 
Kent,  Judge  Spencer,  and  others  on  the  bench  were 
strong  Federalists.  Just  on  the  eve  of  the  elec- 
tion, when  both  parties  had  put  forth  their  strength, 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR    KENT        121 

and  when  as  yet  the  result  of  the  election  was  doubt- 
ful, Judge  Lewis,  meeting  Judge  Kent  at  chambers, 
and  discussing  the  probabiUties  of  the  election, 
said,  — 

"  Judge  Kent,  if  you  will  vote  for  me  I  will  make 
you  Chief-Justice  if  I  am  elected." 

The  manner  in  which  such  a  remark  is  made  is  the 
interpretation  of  the  meaning  of  the  speaker.  It  can 
hardly  be  thought  possible  that  Judge  Lewis  had  any 
intention  of  even  suggesting  a  bribe  to  his  distin- 
guished confrere,  the  remark  being  probably  made 
in  the  nature  of  a  pleasantry,  to  see  what  reply  the 
suggestion  would  call  forth.  Judge  Kent  evidently 
understood  his  friend's  question  in  the  manner  in- 
tended ;    for,  without  hesitation,  he  replied,  — 

"  No,  sir.  Personally,  I  admire  and  respect  your 
character  and  attainments ;  but  I  utterly  detest  your 
political  principles." 

The  fact  that,  at  once  upon  entering  upon  office. 
Governor  Lewis  advanced  Judge  Kent  to  the  position 
of  Chief-Justice,  is  in  itself  a  tribute  to  the  high  char- 
acter of  the  chief-magistrate,  and  his  thorough  sense 
of  justice. 

Judge  Kent's  duties  as  Chief-Justice  did  not  mate- 
rially differ  from  those  of  the  lesser  office,  except 
that  he  occupied  a  seat  in  the  Council  of  Revision, 
in  which  his  struggles,  as  a  Federalist,  against  the 
rising  tide  of  French  influence,  made  his  office  at 
times  almost  a  burden. 

But  fragmentary  memoranda  are  found  among  his 
papers  of  his  experiences  during  the  sixteen  years  of 
his  occupancy  of  a  seat  upon  the  Bench  of  the  Su- 


122        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

preme  Court.  One  of  these  memoranda  is  of  his 
initial  experience. 

"  It  fell  to  my  lot,"  he  records,  "  to  be  selected  to 
hold  the  October  Term  (1798)  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  The  yellow  fever  had  been  so  destructive  in 
the  city  since  the  25th  of  August,  had  excited  such  a 
vast  proportion  of  the  healthy  inhabitants,  and  had 
propagated  such  universal  alarm  and  anxiety,  that  it 
was  the  opinion  of  all  the  judges  that  no  special 
business  ought  to  be  transacted,  and  the  term  was  held 
and  continued  for  the  forinight  J>ro  fonua  merely,  and 
to  prevent  the  total  dissolution  of  suits.  I  held  the 
court  the  first  two  days,  on  the  i6th  and  17th  of 
October,  at  the  Tavern,  on  the  west  end  of  Harlaem 
Bridge,  and  was  attended  by  the  sheriff  and  clerk  and 
several  lawyers.  The  rest  of  the  term  the  court  was 
held  at  the  State  Prison,  in  the  suburbs  of  the  city ; 
and  during  the  progress  of  the  term  the  fever  abated 
rapidly,  so  that  by  the  25th  of  October  the  citizens 
began  to  crowd  into  town  and  to  resume  business. 

"  During  the  leisure  of  this  term  I  read  at  Robert 
Benson's,  where  I  lodged.  Sir  George  Stanton's  ac- 
count of  the  Embassy  to  China.  It  is  very  instruc- 
tive and  well  written,  and  tends,  upon  the  whole,  to 
exalt  greatly  the  opinion  of  our  people  of  the  popula- 
tion and  manners  of  the  people  of  China.  I  also 
visited  frequently  the  State  Prison,  the  new  workshop, 
the  prisoners,  their  work  and  victuals,  the  wall,  the 
sewers,  the  solitary  cells,  the  fireplaces  (which  are  on 
Count  Rumford's  plan),  etc.,  and  I  conclude  it  is  the 
most  finished  and  best  conducted  institution  of  the 
kind  upon  earth.     Thomas  Eddy,  the  principal  pro- 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        123 

moter  and  superintendent  of  the  thing,  deserves  great 
credit,  and  will  probably  acquire  lasting  fame  by  the 
success  of  the  scheme.  The  Quakers  are  certainly 
the  most  spirited  and  active  class  of  citizens  in  the 
community  in  promoting  humane  and  benevolent 
undertakings." 

Toward  the  close  of  this  epoch  of  his  life,  he  notes 
that  he  held  his  first  court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer, 
June  5,  1798,  at  Oneida,  and  tried  the  case  of  Silvia 
Wood,  who  was  convicted  of  murder,  but  died  in 
prison  of  suicide  before  the  day  of  execution.  "  Only 
eight  convictions  of  murder  before  me,"  he  again 
notes,  "  during  the  sixteen  years." 

"  The  Jewish  judges  rode  the  circuits,"  he  reminds 
himself  in  another  note.  "  'And  Samuel  judged  Israel 
all  the  days  of  his  life,  and  he  went  from  year  to  year 
in  circuit,  to  Bethel  and  Gilgal  and  Mizpeh,  and  judged 
Israel  in  all  those  places.'     i  Sam.  ch.  7,  ver.  15  &  16." 

In  another  place  is  found  his  brief  summary  that  in 
these  sixteen  years  he  held  one  hundred  and  forty 
courts,  and  tried  seventeen  hundred  and  fifty-five 
cases. 

As  illustrating  the  firmness  of  Judge  Kent's  char- 
acter, and  his  willingness  to  accept  all  responsibility 
in  carrying  out  the  duties  of  his  position  and  enforcing 
the  proper  observance  of  the  law,  may  be  cited  the 
following.  During  the  latter  part  of  the  war  of  1812 
General  Brown  had  seized  upon  the  persons  of  cer- 
tain citizens  of  the  State  of  New  York,  not  under  mili- 
tary authority,  for  violation  of  some  military  orders. 
A  writ  of  habeas  corpus  was  granted  by  Judge  Kent, 
and    the    sheriff  ordered   to   produce   the  prisoners. 


124        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

General  Brown  refused  to  surrender  them  to  the  civil 
authorities.  The  sheriff  made  his  return  of  the  writ, 
and,  upon  his  explaining  the  reason  for  not  producing 
the  prisoners,  Judge  Kent  directed  him  to  call  out  the 
posse  comitatus  of  the  county,  to  enforce  the  order  of 
the  court,  together  with  the  further  direction,  if  the 
force  was  not  sufficient,  to  call  out  the  posse  of  the 
neighboring  counties ;  and  further  intimated  that  he 
should  order  out  the  entire  force  of  the  State,  if 
necessary,  to  enforce  the  decrees  of  the  court.  The 
situation  was  very  precarious.  The  unpopular  war 
had  been  dragging  itself  along  upon  the  upper  fron- 
tier of  New  York,  and  now  what  threatened  to  be  a 
clash  between  the  Federal  and  the  State  authority  was 
a  matter  of  great  importance  to  the  weak  authority  of 
the  Federal  Government.  Judge  Kent  refused  to  recede 
from  his  position,  maintaining,  among  other  reasons, 
that,  upon  matters  affecting  the  substantial  rights  of 
the  citizens  of  the  State  of  New  York,  the  civil  author- 
ity was  supreme  and  must  be  obeyed,  as  the  State  was 
not  in  insurrection  and  martial  law  had  not  been  pro- 
claimed. Strong  representations  were  made  to  General 
Brown  by  prominent  gentlemen,  and  he  finally  per- 
mitted the  prisoners  to  be  handed  over  to  the  sheriff. 
They  were  brought  before  Judge  Kent,  an  examina- 
tion was  held,  and  they  were  immediately  remitted  to 
the  custody  of  General  Brown,  sufficient  cause  for 
their  detention  having  been  shown.  The  principle  of 
the  right  of  the  people,  under  that  great  charter  of 
Anglo-Saxon  liberties,  the  "  habeas  corpus,"  had 
been  vindicated,  and  the  incident  closed. 

It  was  in  December,  1805,  that  Judge  Kent  formed 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        125 

a  close  professional  connection  with  William  Johnson, 
with  whose  name  his  own  is  inseparably  connected. 
The  two  were  personal  friends  previous  to  Mr.  John- 
son's appointment  to  the  ofhce  of  Reporter  of  De- 
cisions of  the  Supreme  Court,  and,  without  doubt,  it 
was  largely  through  the  influence  of  Judge  Kent  that 
the  appointment  was  made,  A  letter  addressed  to 
Judge  Kent  by  Mr.  Johnson,  bearing  date  of  Decem- 
ber 23,  1805,  is  a  proof  of  the  close  and  intimate 
friendship  of  the  two  men :  — 

William  Johnson  to  Judge  Kent. 

New  York,  December  23,  1805. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  received  your  letter  inclosing  the  certifi- 
cate ;  I  feel  obliged  by  your  attention  to  my  pecuniary 
interest  in  this  appointment.  Though  of  no  small  weight 
in  this  mercenary  world,  it  was  a  consideration  that  least 
occupied  my  mind.  One  of  the  most  pleasing  incidents  in 
the  execution  of  the  duties  of  my  office  will  be  its  leading 
me  into  your  society,  which  I  have  so  little  enjoyed  since 
your  removal  from  this  city. 

I  feel  no  little  anxiety  about  the  first  number  of  the 
reports,  which  must  inevitably  be  too  imperfect,  and  I  fear 
incorrect,  and  the  partiality  of  my  friends  has  created  ex- 
pectations which  will  not  be  fulfilled.  I  have  obtained  from 
Mr,  Caines  ^  thirteen  cases,  which  he  mentioned  were  all 
that  lay  over  for  the  judgment  of  the  court  in  the  next 
term.  Mr,  Hopkins  has,  however,  furnished  me  with  an- 
other since,  Mr,  C.  offered  me  his  notes  of  arguments, 
but  I  declined  the  acceptance  of  them,  thinking  it  best  to 
omit  the  arguments  of  counsel,  and  give  only  the  facts  and 
opinions  of  the  court ;  relying  on  the  candor  of  the  Bar, 

1  Mr.  Johnson's  predecessor. 


126        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

for  this  inattention,  in  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the 
publication  of  the  first  number.  I  shall,  before  leaving  town 
for  Albany,  abridge  the  cases  in  my  possession,  and  be  thus 
far  prepared  to  commence  publication.  Mr.  C.  told  me 
that  he  should  publish  the  reports  of  the  last  term,  which 
conclude  the  year.  The  cases  of  practice  which  may  be 
thought  important,  and  which  he  may  omit,  I  expect  your 
notes  will  enable  me  to  publish.  Lideed,  I  shall  rely  very 
much  on  your  aid  in  the  outset  of  the  work,  as  I  know  I 
always  may  on  your  friendship  and  advice. 

Ten  years  later,  when  Judge  Kent  had  been  ad- 
vanced to  the  office  of  Chancellor,  Mr.  Johnson  was 
transferred  to  the  Court  of  Equity,  as  Reporter  of 
Decisions  in  that  tribunal.  Some  of  the  letters  written 
by  these  two  friends  are  preserved,  and  disclose,  not 
only  a  complete  understanding  in  matters  professional, 
but  a  close  personal  friendship  as  well.  In  a  letter 
transmitting  a  number  of  decisions  recently  made,  to 
his  Reporter,  the  Chancellor  writes :  "  I  am  only 
afraid  of  reporting  too  much,  and  I  shall  stand  in 
need  of  your  judgment  on  that  point,  seeing  I  am 
alone  in  my  court,  and  have  no  other  aid  ;  and  I  shall 
place  more  reliance  on  your  judgment  than  my  own." 

Again,  in  enclosing  an  opinion  to  Mr.  Johnson,  the 
Chancellor  gives  him  an  account  of  a  journey  which 
he  has  recently  taken,  in  company  with  Mrs.  Kent, 
by  stage-coach,  through  the  region  of  the  Green 
Mountains.  "  We  had  thus,  by  Saturday  evening  of 
the  first  week,"  he  writes,  "  ridden  two  hundred  and 
sixty  miles  in  stages,  in  four  days,  and  twice  traversed 
the  broad  back  of  the  Green  Mountains,  and  seen  all 
the  glories  of  the  upper  Connecticut.      The  people 


MEMOIRS  OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        127 

were  industrious  and  civil.  We  saw  no  poverty  nor 
rudeness,  nor  distress,  but  the  country  in  the  highest 
luxuriance.  I  was  chatty  and  courteous  to  stagemen 
and  innkeepers,  at  bar-rooms  and  on  piazzas,  and 
was  wonderfully  pleased  with  the  simplicity  of  the 
scene.  It  was  far  superior  in  interest  to  the  crowds 
of  fashion  on  Broadway,  and  I  suspect  that  few  citi- 
zens or  citizenesses  of  Broadway,  of  our  age  and 
character,  would  have  committed  themselves  to  such 
a  tour,  in  such  a  mode,  and  with  such  daring  and  ex- 
citing rapidity.  I  think  Mrs.  K.  and  I  deserve  to  be 
enrolled  among  the  actors  in  the  heroic  ages.  We 
found  what  we  sought,  health  and  pleasure." 

In  another  letter  to  his  Reporter,  after  despatching 
the  business  in  hand,  he  chats  of  his  s^eneral  reading-. 
"  This  moment,"  he  says,  "  I  have  laid  Virgil  on  my 
table,  and  I  am  determined  to  amuse  myself  in  read- 
ing him  forthwith.  I  have  nothing  else  to  do.  I  have 
just  finished  Ferriere's  '  History  of  the  Civil  Law,'  and 
I  was  charmed  with  it.  My  three  children  are  all 
with  me,  and  I  am  of  course  brimful  of  happiness." 

Many  years  later,  when,  upon  the  eve  of  Chan- 
cellor Kent's  retirement,  —  he  having  reached  the  age 
of  sixty  years,  —  a  new  Reporter  was  given  the  posi- 
tion so  long  and  so  honorably  held  by  Mr.  Johnson, 
the  Chancellor  wrote  to  his  friend:  "You  retire  with 
my  gratitude,  love,  and  admiration,  and  if  my  name 
is  to  live  in  judicial  annals,  it  will  be  in  association 
with  yours."  Two  days  before  his  retirement,  in 
transmitting  to  Mr.  Johnson  his  final  opinions,  and 
in  severing  a  relation  which  had  been  so  long  con- 
tinued, the  Chancellor  wrote  thus :  — 


128        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

CJiaiiccllor  Kcjit  to   William  JoJuisoii. 

I  cannot  think  of  the  dissolution  of  the  official  connection 
between  you  and  me  without  a  tender  recollection  of  the 
endearments  of  our  past  friendship,  nor  without  a  hope  that 
the  intercourse  and  friendship  between  us  may  continue  un- 
impaired. My  respect,  esteem,  admiration,  and  attachment 
to  you  as  a  pure  and  accomplished  character,  is  as  deep- 
rooted  as  the  principle  of  life,  and  you  must  never  cease  for 
one  moment  to  look  upon  me  as  a  friend  affectionately  de- 
voted to  your  interest,  your  happiness,  your  fame,  and  the 
happiness  of  your  wife  and  children. 

For  the  twenty-five  years  during  which  Judge  Kent 
occupied  the  Bench  of  either  the  Supreme  Court  or 
of  the  Court  of  Chancery,  he  made  Albany  his  home. 
As  Supreme  Court  Judge,  his  duties  required  him  to 
take  long  journeys  to  every  part  of  the  State,  in  order 
to  hold  the  Circuit  Courts  at  the  various  county  scats. 
In  making  these  trips  he  notes  that  he  visited  almost 
every  county  seat  in  the  State  and  held  courts. 
These  journeys  were  performed  by  stage,  in  the  bet- 
ter settled  portions  of  the  country,  but  more  usually  on 
horseback,  or  in  a  "  chair,"  as  a  buggy,  or  buckboard, 
was  then  called. 

These  trips,  sometimes  occupying  three  or  four 
months,  were  upon  the  whole  very  irksome  to  him. 
He  was  deprived  of  the  society  of  his  wife  and  family 
and  intimate  friends,  which  was  a  constant  source  of 
regret.  Also,  in  a  great  measure,  he  was  cut  off  from 
the  pleasures  of  literary  pursuits,  it  being  quite  imprac- 
ticable for  him  to  carry  his  library  with  him.  He  was 
therefore  reduced  to  the  society  of  one  or  two  favorite 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        129 

classics.  Of  law  books  he  required  none,  as  he  usually 
decided  all  simple  questions  as  they  came  before  him, 
reserving  his  decisions  only  on  the  more  complicated 
questions,  until  he  could  write  his  opinions.  He  fre- 
quently notes  that  he  has  brought  home  with  him 
from  his  trip  bundles  of  cases  which  will  occupy  him 
until  the  next  term,  to  study  and  decide. 

He  kept  a  careful  diary  of  these  circuits  which  he 
held,  for  reference,  allusion  to  which  has  been  made ; 
but  he  appears  never  to  have  met  with  any  adventures 
of  travel  which  were  worthy  of  record.  He  informally 
records  that  the  people  whom  he  met  were  civil  and 
obliging,  although,  at  times,  the  journeying  might  be 
hard  and  the  fare  rough.  Many  letters  to  his  wife  have 
been  preserved,  which  speak  of  such  incidents,  but 
the  burden  of  them  all  is  his  intense  regret  at  being 
separated  from  his  family  for  such  lengthy  periods. 
These  letters  disclose  a  phase  of  his  nature  which 
those  who  knew  him  only  in  his  judicial  character 
might  not  discover. 

Judge  Kent  to  his   Wife. 

New  York,  Tuesday  eve,  April  10,  1804. 
Dear  Betsy,  —  Perhaps  this  letter  will  not  be  worth  1 9 
cts.,  but  you  must  take  it  as  you  took  me,  and  I  will  detail 
the  little  occurrences  of  the  two  last  days.  They  are  trifling 
to  others  and  may  be  amusing  to  you,  I  dined  this  day  with 
James.  There  were  Mrs.  Dorcas  Bailey,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  As- 
pinwall,  Mr.  Morris,  and  Mr.  H.  Wyckoff,  and  the  two  Miss 
Linns,  The  chat  among  gentlemen,  when  left  to  them- 
selves, is  about  those  eternal  themes,  the  Election  and  the 
Bank  and  Burr.     I  had  rather  hear  dear  little  precious  Will  ^ 

1  The  Chancellor's  only  son,  Judge  William  Kent. 
9 


I30        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

call  for  "  Pa-pa  "  and  '' up-up,"  and  cry  "  hah-hah,"  than 
to  hear  the  best  composition  in  music  that  ever  Handel 
performed.  I  hope  you  let  him  go  into  the  office  and  show 
the  books  and  Betsy's  little  trunk  and  my  drawers  and  the 
pipe,  and  let  him  go  to  the  pump  and  the  church  and  the 
river  as  often  as  he  wishes. 

Last  evening  I  called  also  at  James',  and  there  was  a  full 
crowded  room  of  ladies  at  tea  and  seven  dozen  candles  and 
a  pair  of  lamps.  Sister  Caty  seems  to  see  a  great  deal  of 
company.  .  .  .  Robt.  Benson  dined  with  me  at  Boyd's  yes- 
terday, and  the  old  gentleman  is  a  great  Burrite,  I  sleep  in 
a  clean,  snug,  elegant,  front  bedroom,  and  enjoy  myself  as 
well  as  was  to  be  expected,  separated  from  all  I  hold  most 
dear. 

The  courts  were  opened  to-day  and  business  was  begun. 
Woolsey  is  down,  and  I  find  I  might  have  stayed  at  home  till 
yesterday.  I  shall  expect  you  in  May.  The  sail  and  visit 
will  be  short,  and  can  be  made  vastly  agreeable.  It  will  be 
necessary  to  see  you  by  that  time,  as  I  shall  begin  to  forget 
you  amidst  the  numerous  beauties  that  are  constantly  before 
my  eyes  here.  Susan  and  Mary  Linn  look  very  pretty,  but 
it  is  time  the  first  is  married.  I  am  afraid  her  charms  will 
not  be  impressive  long.  I  am  very  economical,  and  I  shall 
buy  but  very  few  books,  and  shall  reser\'e  my  money  for  your 
use  and  for  your  gratification  ;  and  ought  you  not  to  love  such 
a  husband? 

Judge  Kent  to  his  Wife. 

New  York,  Friday,  April  20,  1804. 

Dear  Betsy,  —  My  days  flow  very  uniformly  here,  and  I 
have  nothing  to  tell  you  more  interesting  than  that  my 
heart  is  warm  and  devoted  to  my  wife  and  children.  Very 
dull  indeed  the  court  has  hitherto  been,  and  everybody 
seems  to  be  occupied  with  politics  and  engaging  themselves 
with  the  two  polluted  factions.     I  keep  quite   aloof  and 


MEMOIRS  OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        131 

mind  my  court  and  reading  and  walking.  I  am  awakened 
every  morning  in  my  neat  bedroom  by  carts  and  sweeps, 
or  the  milkman  "  screaming  to  the  rattle  of  his  pail  of  tin ;  " 
and  we  breakfast  at  8  precisely,  on  tea  or  coffee  and  buck- 
wheat cakes.  Then  I  walk  for  a  mile  and  perhaps  visit  a 
bookseller  and  go  into  court  at  10  and  stay  till  near  4,  and 
then  at  a  dinner  party.  The  evening  affords  a  little  leisure 
to  visit  and  I  employ  it  accordingly.  Last  evening  I  called 
and  smoked  a  pipe  with  old  Dr.  Rodgers  and  his  prim  and 
venerable  partner.  The  evening  before  I  was  at  Mr.  King's 
and  there  I  saw  a  good  many  things  worth  mentioning. 
There  were  Mrs.  Low,  Mrs.  Patrune,  Mrs.  Morton,  of 
Boston,  the  authoress  of  "Beacon  Hill,"  "Philenia,"  etc., 
etc.,  and  a  Mrs.  King,  who  was  dressed,  as  I  thought,  very 
gayly.  Her  husband  is  plain  and  dignified,  and  of  very 
impressive  manners.  I  have  seen  the  widow  Vanwyck,  who 
has  laid  aside  the  gloom  of  last  fall  and  is  very  smiling  and 
affable  and  anxious  to  talk  about  the  cities  abroad ;  and  I 
have  dined  with  Mrs.  O'Kane.  She  is  homely  —  quite  so; 
I  am  astonished  she  ever  was  admired :  but  she  is  very 
sprightly  and  genteel.  Their  furniture  is  splendid.  I  think 
it  is  overloaded  with  magnificence,  and  Mrs.  King's  parlor 
pleased  me  better,  because  the  furniture  was  elegant  and 
simple.  Let  me  see  —  I  propose  that  we  get  a  mattress  ; 
pair  of  plated  lamps ;  settee  for  drawing-room ;  paper  for 
room  below. 

You  must  give  me  advice  on  all  these  heads ;  as  I  said 
before,  I  reserve  all  my  money  this  spring  for  your  gratifica- 
tion. I  spend  nothing  here  and  have  to  receive  at  least 
^300.  So  you  will  perceive  I  have  ample  means  and  I 
shall  wait  for  your  instructions.  I  have  most  forgotten  dear 
little  Will.  It  always  so  happens  that  the  mother  monopo- 
lizes all  my  thoughts  when  I  am  absent.  However,  I 
promise  to  make  it  up  for  my  children  when  I  am  with 
them.     Only  think,  two  weeks  have  fled,  and  in  four  from 


132        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

to-morrow  I  set  my  face  homeward.  During  the  three  days 
of  election  next  week,  1  shall  have  play  spell,  and  shall 
devote  it  to  studying  my  cases,  for  I  have  done  very  little 
at  that  as  yet.  To-morrow,  after  court,  I  go  out  with 
General  Hamilton  and  I  shall  stay  with  him  on  Sunday 
and  shall  have  an  opportunity,  if  a  good  day,  of  wandering 
all  over  the  Harlem  hills.  He  is  very  much  mortified  at 
the  conduct  of  the  Federalists  and  is  melancholy  and 
presages  all  the  dire  events  that  any  gloomy  imagination 
can  create. 

Judge  Kent  to  Ids  Wife. 

New  York,  Sunday,  May  13,  1804. 

My  dear  Betsy,  —  After  several  days  of  chilly  easterly 
winds,  we  have  a  beautiful  day  and  my  spirits  are  lively. 
This  arises  principally  from  the  reflection  that  I  am  half 
through  Term  time,  and  that  next  Sunday  I  shall  be  sailing 
along  the  verdant,  or  the  picturesque,  banks  of  the  Hudson. 
It  is  probable  I  shall  leave  this  city  on  Saturday,  and  I  am 
making  every  arrangement  for  that  purpose.  Little  Bess  is 
quite  tired  of  New  York  and  almost  as  homesick  as  I  am. 

We  had  yesterday  a  celebration  of  the  acquisition  of 
Louisiana ;  the  military  paraded  and  the  guns  fired,  etc., 
but  it  was  a  paltry  procession.  Above  half  the  churches 
refused  to  let  their  bells  ring.  The  judges  were  all  by 
letters  invited  to  walk  in  procession,  but  we  all  kept  in 
court  at  business.  .  .  .  We  meet  every  evening  at  Judge 
Livingston's,  and  Brother  Moss  took  little  Bess  all  about  to 
see  museums  and  curiosities.  He  is  worth  a  dozen  of  me, 
as  I  am  so  engaged  with  court  anfl  dinners  and  consulta- 
tions. .  .  . 

I  dined  yesterday  at  Moses  Rogers' ;  he  lives  on  the 
Battery,  in  Penfield's  House,  The  Battery  is  now  beautiful 
and  enchanting.  The  verdure  and  the  trees  and  the  scenery 
are  brilliant.     It  wants  nothinc;  but  a  mountain  towerins:  on 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        133 

one  side  of  the  harbor  to  equal  the  Bay  of  Naples.  At 
dinner  was  Mr.  Wolcott,  Mr.  Tracey  (who  says  he  saw  you 
at  the  Springs  and  that  you  are  a  lively  woman  ;  let  me  add, 
by  the  bye,  that  you  are  enchantingly  lovely),  Colonel 
Talmaise,  of  Litchfield,  and  a  number  of  others,  and  ladies. 
These  vexatious  dinners  are  to  me  worse  than  the  courts. 
But,  thank  God,  they  are  most  over  for  this  season.  I  am 
in  hopes  to  make  some  pleasant  tours  with  you  this  fall 
and  to  make  you  compensation  for  the  loss  of  your  New 
York  jaunt.  I  am  pretty  resolute  that  I  will  do  something 
pretty  clever  for  you  in  that  way,  and  at  least  I  can  enjoy 
these  things  in  anticipation. 

During  a  session  of  the  court  at  Salem  (Washing- 
ton County,  N.  Y.),  he  longs  for  the  companionship 
of  his  wife  and  family,  and  for  the  delights  of  home. 
"  The  anticipation  of  approaching  nearer  and  nearer 
to  my  beloved  home,"  he  writes,  "  will  sweeten  and 
brighten  the  moments.  What  is  there  besides  wife 
and  children  and  the  countless  petty  comforts  of  home 
that  is  worth  enjoying  in  this  world?  I  really  think 
nothing.  Deprived  of  these,  I  should  be  a  poor  ma- 
niac, without  heart  to  feel,  or  head  to  guide  me. 
Rest  contented  that  your  husband  prizes  you  and  his 
daughter  and  son  with  as  much  fervency  as  can  be 
wished  for  or  expected." 

A  letter  from  Judge  Kent  to  his  wife,  during  her 
temporary  absence  from  home,  is  equally  full  of  regrets 
at  the  separation  :  — 

Judge  Kent  to  his  Wife. 

Albany,  August  25,  1806. 
Dear  Betsy,  —  The  winds  became  propitious  to  you  after 
the  sharp  Hghtning  of  Friday  evening,  and  I  trust  you  had  a 


134        MEMOIRS   OF    CHANCELLOR   KENT 

quick  and  pleasant  passage.  I  was  uncommonly  gloomy  the 
evening  after  you  left  me,  and  on  Saturday  morning  my 
most  beloved  brother  took  his  departure.  Little  Will  has 
had  his  eyes  frequently  suffused  with  tears  at  the  recollec- 
tion of  his  mother,  but  — 

"Gay  hope  is  his  by  fancy  fed, 
Less  pleasing  when  possessed ; 
The  tear  forgot  as  soon  as  shed 
The  sunshine  of  the  breast." 

On  Saturday  in  the  afternoon  I  took  him  and  Bess  over 
to  Bath  for  a  little  sail.  Yesterday  he  went  with  me  to 
church,  and  I  heard  Dr.  Perkins.  I  dined  with  my  next 
neighbor  to-day.  It  is  now  i  o'clock,  and  ^Vill  is  playing 
and  chirping  before  the  door.  I  keep  a  basket  filled  with 
peaches  and  pears,  and  Bess  behaves  with  the  gravity  of  a 
matron.  William  Johnson  and  Bleecker  have  been  most  of 
the  forenoon  in  the  office,  thumbing  my  books  and  whiling 
away  the  time  in  varied  and  elegant  conversation.  I  have 
entered  on  my  classical  career,  and  have  been  going  over 
the  Georgics  of  Virgil,  with  Southey's  elegant  version,  but  the 
solitude  of  the  house  is  too  great  for  comfort  and  study. 
The  evening  especially  is  dismal,  and  I  am  obliged  to  con- 
fess that  — 

"Though  no  disease  my  torpid  veins  invade, 
Yet  melancholy's  phantoms  haunt  my  shade." 

Johnson  has  returned  from  Lebanon,  and  he  admires 
that  vale  exceedingly.  It  is  one  of  the  pleasantest  inland 
valleys  he  ever  saw.  Yesterday  he  visited  the  Shakers,  and 
was  struck  with  the  unparalleled  neatness  of  their  dwellings 
and  with  the  mummy,  or  death-like,  appearance  of  the 
women.  Bleecker  possesses  rather  more  feeling  toward 
the  singular  beauties  of  the  country,  and  longs  to  visit 
Lake  George  and  the  inmost  valleys  of  the  Catskills. 

Will  has  just  come  in  from  the  street,  and  is  now  engaged 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        135 

in  rolling  a  watermelon  over  the  carpet,  in  stretching  him- 
self on  the  floor,  and  singing  songs.  My  dinner  will  soon 
be  up.  It  is  to  be  very  frugal,  a  small  pudding  and  a  steak, 
that 's  all.  My  prayer  is  to  be  blessed  with  the  company 
and  happiness  of  my  wife  and  children,  with  a  continued 
strong  and  glowing  relish  for  letters  or  science,  in  all  its 
enchanting  departments,  —  in  short,  that 

"Science  and  soft  affection's  blended  rays 
May  shine  unclouded  on  my  lengthened  days." 

Again,  in  the  summer  of  1807,  Mrs.  Kent  paid  a 
visit  to  her  relatives  at  Poughkeepsie,  leaving  the 
Judge  for  a  time  to  his  own  devices  and  the  care  of 
their  two  children.  How  well  he  performed  his 
task,  the  following  bright  and  affectionate  epistle  will 
show :  — 

Judge  Kent  to  his   Wife. 

Albany,  Tuesday,  August  25,  1807. 

Dear  Betsy,  —  I  had  the  pleasure  of  learning  your  safe 
arrival  at  Poughkeepsie  by  a  line  from  Mrs.  Linn.  Your 
journey  during  the  two  very  hot  days  was  very  fortunately 
performed,  and  I  was  afraid  you  would  have  suff'ered  great 
inconvenience.  I  have  charming  solitude  at  home,  and 
have  begun  to  read  with  great  alacrity.  I  begin  to  think 
that  single  life  is  best  for  the  student,  and  therefore  you  will 
be  so  good  as  to  let  me  remain  here  alone  as  long  as  possible. 
There  is  not  a  soul  in  the  house  this  afternoon.  The  cake 
boy  has  just  been  here,  and  I  keep  the  basket  stored  with 
jumbles  for  my  son,  and  with  crackers  for  my  daughter. 
I  give  toast  and  milk  in  the  morning,  and  Will  has  full 
scope  at  the  sugar  cup  ;  and  at  noon  I  feed  Bess  with  beef- 
steaks, and  see  that  some  good  pieces  are  cut  nicely  for  the 
son.  So  you  perceive  I  do  very  well.  When  the  news 
arrives,  I  pore  over  my  maps  and  trace  every  step  of  the 
Conqueror  of  the  Baltic. 


136        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

Old  Mrs,  Seton  called  this  afternoon  to  ask  me  how  I 
did,  and  I  met  every  courtesy  with  a  bow,  and  followed  her 
out  to  the  very  bottom  of  the  steps.  Miss  Linn  paid  me  a 
visit  with  Miss  Bridges  yesterday  afternoon,  and  notwith- 
standing their  excessive  shyness  I  got  them  both  seated  in 
the  office ;  but  I  could  not  prevail  upon  them  to  honor  me 
at  the  tea  table,  and  they  fled  off  soon,  lest  they  might 
alarm  your  feelings  and  awaken  your  suspicion. 

One  more  of  these  charming  personal  letters  must 
be  given,  letters  which  so  well  display  his  love  of  home 
and  family;  the  ease  with  which  his  mind  turned  to 
lighter  themes  from  the  contemplation  of  grave  prob- 
lems ;  and  the  vein  of  gentle  humor  with  which  he 
was  gifted.  This  letter  was  written  during  his  absence 
at  Hudson,  in  attendance  at  court  in  that  town.  One 
of  his  coadjutors,  Judge  Van  Ness,  is  holding  court 
at  Albany,  and  him  he  commends  to  the  courtesies  of 
Mrs.  Kent. 

Judge  Kent  to  Mrs.  Kent. 

Hudson,  September  27,  1807. 

Dear  Betsy, —  I  told  Judge  Van  Ness  that  I  should 
draw  an  order  on  my  wife  for  every  civil  usage  during  his 
stay  in  Albany.  He  may  want  my  sulky,  and  if  he  does 
you  must  see  that  Jack  cleans  it  well  for  him. 

I  came  down  in  five  hours  exactly,  in  the  steamboat,  and 
I  was  charmed  with  the  —  sail,  I  was  going  to  say.  I  mean  I 
was  delighted  with  the  paddling.  We  had  thirty  passengers. 
After  dinner  on  Friday  the  Judge  and  the  Adjutant  General 
(who  is  here  also  with  his  wife)  walked  with  me  to  the  top 
of  Windmill  Hill,  and  a  grander  prospect  I  never  saw.  Yes- 
terday I  settled  my  business  with  the  bank,  and  I  found  to 
my  agreeable  surprise  that  I  had  $850  lying  there  for  me. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        137 

I  made  therefore  all  the  payments  I  wished  and  have  re- 
served $200  to  carry  home,  so  that  I  beUeve  now  the  look- 
ing-glass must  come  this  fall ;  all  this  entre  nous. 

Yesterday  in  the  afternoon  the  Judge  and  myself  rode  to 
Claverack  and  we  spent  the  evening  with  a  parcel  of  ladies 
at  Judge  Gilbert's,  and  his  daughter  Angelica  charmed  me 
by  her  singing  and  music  and  manners  and  elegance  so  that 
I  shall  not  probably  be  able  to  think  of  you  any  more  until 
I  return  home. 

By  the  bye,  a  sublime  spectacle  is  to  be  seen  in  the  west- 
ern sky,  a  little  after  dark.  A  comet  has  made  its  appear- 
ance and  I  beg  of  you  to  be  out  on  the  watch  for  some 
evenings  to  come.  It  has  a  grand  sweeping  tail  and  is  a 
sight  as  majestic  as  any  that  ever  hung  out  in  the  heavens 
to  the  astonishment  and  admiration  of  mortals. 

Of  Judge  Van  Ness  a  word,  in  passing,  is  proper. 
He  was  a  pupil  of  Mr.  Kent  about  the  year  1793,  and 
to  the  training  thus  received  was  doubtless  largely 
due  his  subsequent  eminence.  Judge  William  Kent, 
the  son  of  the  Chancellor,  about  the  year  1840,  made 
a  brief  memorandum  concerning  Judge  Van  Ness, 
which  has  been  preserved. 

"Van  Ness,"  wrote  Judge  Kent,  "was  then  an  en- 
thusiastic Democrat.  He  attempted  to  convert,  as 
he  used  to  tell  the  story,  Domine  Gebhard,  a  vener- 
able clergyman  of  his  native  village  of  Claverack, 
where  for  many  years  he  preached  orthodox  doctrines 
in  the  Dutch  tongue.  Van  Ness  took  to  him  Paine's 
*  Age  of  Reason,'  which  he  presented  with  an  eloquent 
harangue  on  the  new  era  just  commenced,  and  the 
departure  of  prejudices  and  superstitions  and  the 
dovv-nfall  of  kings,  etc.,  etc.     He  used  to  say  that  he 


138        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

was  something  daunted,  towards  the  close  of  his 
speech,  by  the  cold,  steady  gaze  of  the  clergyman, 
who  listened  in  perfect  silence.  When  the  young 
republican  had  finished,  he  offered  the  book  with  a 
polite  bow,  to  his  clerical  friend,  who  accepted  it  with 
equal  grace  and  placed  it  immediately  —  behind  the 
back  log  of  his  fire ! 

"  There  was  no  further  attempt  to  convert  the  min- 
ister, and,  on  the  contrary,  for  many  long  years  after- 
wards, he  had  no  more  reverent  attendant  than  Mr. 
Van  Ness,  in  his  little  old  brick  church  in  Claverack- 
hill,  which,  within  and  without,  in  its  quaint  architec- 
ture and  queer  congregation,  was  such  as  Washington 
Irving  loved  to  describe. 

"  Van  Ness'  democracy  was  somewhat  shocked  by 
the  execution  of  Louis  XVI.,  and  it  was  converted  into 
warm  indignation  at  the  French  Revolution,  when  the 
horrid  and  unmanly  murder  of  Marie  Antoinette  was 
perpetrated.  He  was  not  a  man  to  pursue  a  cold 
medium  in  his  feelings.  He  became  an  ardent  Fed- 
eralist, and  remained  one  during  the  residue  of  his 
life." 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        139 


VI 


WITH  the  close  of  his  third  term  in  the  Assembly 
of  his  State,  Mr.  Kent  ended  his  active  par- 
ticipation in  political  life.  It  can  never  with  truth  be 
said,  however,  that  his  ardor  cooled,  or  that  he  did 
not  follow  to  the  last,  with  deep  interest,  the  drift  of 
political  sentiment.  His  intense  application,  upon  the 
lines  of  study  which  he  had  laid  down  for  himself,  and 
his  active  judicial  work,  left  him  scant  leisure  in  which 
to  engage  in  political  discussion.  Still,  it  was  with 
marked  interest  that  he  watched  the  result  of  the 
presidential  canvass  in  which  Jefferson  and  Burr  were 
the  rival  candidates  during  1 800-1. 

As  has  been  shown  in  his  "  Memoranda,"  he  became, 
in  early  life,  a  Federalist  by  conviction,  and  a  great 
admirer  of  the  able  writers  of  that  party.  Although 
Burr  was  the  nominal  Federal  candidate,  it  was  with 
feelings  of  concern  that  Mr.  Kent  watched  the  election, 
which  might  elevate  him  to  the  office  of  Chief  Magis- 
trate. In  the  electoral  college,  it  will  be  remembered, 
Thomas  Jefferson  and  Aaron  Burr  each  received  an 
equal  number  of  votes,  and  the  election,  as  a  result, 
was  thrown  into  the  House  of  Representatives.  The 
country  at  that  time  was  not  as  now  covered  by  a  net- 
work of  electric  wires.  Moreover,  in  many  cases, 
presidential  electors  were  not  pledged  to  a  particular 
party  or  candidate    previous   to    their   election.      It 


140       MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

therefore  so  came  about  that,  in  the  middle  of  De- 
cember, 1800,  more  than  a  month  after  the  election 
of  electors,  the  result  was  not  definitely  known.  On 
the  17th  of  that  month  Judge  Kent  was  addressed  by 
Hon.  Jonas  Piatt,  a  member  of  Congress  from  New 
York,  as  follows  :  — 

Hon.  Jonas  Piatt  to  James  Kent. 

December  17,  1800. 

Dear  Sir,  —  Congress  has  as  yet  done  so  little  as  to 
afford  no  news  for  this  manufactory.  All  the  votes  are 
known  here  except  those  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  ;  in 
all  the  other  states  Jefferson  and  Burr  have  an  equal  num- 
ber of  votes,  and  but  very  little  doubt  exists  but  that  they 
will  come  out  even.  The  Jacos  [Jacobins]  tremble  at  this 
prospect  and  fear  that  the  election  may  be  altogether  de- 
feated, or  what  is  much  worse  in  their  view,  that  little  Aaron 
Burr  will  hold  the  reins  over  them.  .  .  . 

Upon  the  whole  we  are  at  this  moment  swallowing  the 
last  drop  of  the  dregs  of  humiliation. 

Hon.  Jonas  Piatt  to  James  Kejtt. 

December  25,  1800. 

Information  is  received  which  ascertains  beyond  all 
doubt  that  Jefferson  and  Burr  have  an  equal  number  of 
votes.  The  Jacos  are  alarmed,  and  Federalists  seem  dis- 
tracted with  doubts.  A  great  variety  of  projects  are  sug- 
gested by  our  friends,  and  the  necessity  of  Federal  unanimity 
is  not  fully  estimated.  I  think  I  discover  some  symptoms 
of  an  ambition  in  two  or  three  of  our  friends  to  be  con- 
sidered the  leaders  to  whom  the  successful  candidate  is 
to  owe  his  preferment. 

There  has  yet  been  no  caucus  of  the  party  generally; 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        141 

and  some  advise  against  it.  All  seem  to  admit  that  the 
choice  between  the  two  candidates  rests  with  the  Federal 
party  in  the  House.  Some  suppose  that  stipulations  ought 
to  be  demanded  before  we  declare  our  preference ;  and 
that  agents  should  be  appointed  to  manage  the  conference  ; 
others  suppose  such  a  measure  dangerous  and  highly  dis- 
graceful to  our  party.     What  think  you  of  all  this? 

Mr.  Piatt,  further  writing  in  February,  says :  — 

We  have  counted  the  votes  and  find  them  as  was  ex- 
pected.'^ The  House  of  Representatives  have  balloted 
seven  times  and  the  result  has  been  invariably  eight  for 
Jefferson,  six  for  Burr,  and  two  divided.  Our  sitting  is  to 
be  perpetual  till  a  choice.  Parties  yet  pretty  temperate, 
but  obstinate. 

Still  later  Mr.  Piatt  writes:  — 

Washington,  nth  February,  1801. 
12  o'clock  at  night. 

Dear  Sir,  —  We  have  just  finished  the  19th  balloting 
and  the  result  still  uniform.  Eight  votes  for  Jefferson,  six 
for  Burr,  and  two  divided.  The  suspense  is  awful,  but  the 
conflict  of  passions  not  yet  very  violent.  We  ballot  regu- 
larly at  intervals  of  an  hour.  Refreshments  of  every  kind 
are  brought  us,  and  how  long  the  siege  will  last,  or  which 
party  will  capitulate,  is  uncertain. 

Two  members  are  very  sick  abed  in  an  adjoining  room. 
This  scene  would  be  ridiculous  if  it  were  not  so  important. 
A  stronger  illustration  of  the  absurdity  of  this  part  of  the 
Constitution  could  not  possibly  be  given.  I  presume  it  is 
needless  to  tell  you  that  New  York  divides  six  to  four, 
Maryland  and  Vermont  equally  divided. 

1  The  statement  of  the  votes,  as  enclosed  in  this  letter,  showed  a 
total  of  276  electoral  votes,  of  which  Jefferson  had  73 ;  Burr,  73 ; 
Adams,  65  ;  C.  C.  Pinckney,  64;  John  Jay,  i. 


142        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

Mr.  Jefferson,  as  history  records,  was  elected  Presi- 
dent on  the  thirty-sixth  ballot.  No  written  record 
exists  by  which  it  may  be  known  what  were  Judge 
Kent's  emotions  in  learning  the  final  result  of  this 
long  contest.  As  a  Federalist,  he  regarded  with 
abhorrence  the  political  opinions  of  Jefferson,  and 
the  conduct  of  Burr  in  the  Clinton  affair,  in  1792, 
had  filled  him  with  disgust.  It  is  probable,  therefore, 
that,  although  he  was  eager  to  learn  the  result  at  the 
earliest  moment,  he  was  not  a  very  zealous  partisan 
of  either  of  the  most  prominent  candidates. 

In  the  spring  of  1804  occurred  that  memorable 
gubernatorial  canvass  in  New  York,  in  which  Burr 
was  again  a  prominent  candidate.  It  has  already 
been  shown  ^  how,  in  all  human  probability,  expres- 
sions of  opinion  as  to  Burr's  fitness  for  the  responsible 
position  which  he  sought,  which  had  passed  between 
Alexander  Hamilton  and  Judge  Kent,  were  the  cause 
of  the  memorable  duel  in  which  Hamilton  lost  his 
life,  and  Burr  his  reputation  and  the  respect  of  man- 
kind. Judge  Kent's  letter  to  his  wife,  written  in  the 
height  of  the  contest,  has  an  interest  at  this  point : 

Judge  Kent  to  his  Wife. 

New  York,  April  26,  1804. 
My  dear  Wife,  —  ...  The  election  is  nearly  over,  and 
the  Burrites  are  sanguine  and  appear  flushed  with  the  lau- 
rels of  victory.  They  claim  a  decided  majority  in  this  city. 
The  Federalists  have  been  generally  brought  out.  The  cold 
reserve  and  indignant  reproaches  of  Hamilton  may  have 
controlled  a  few,  but  they  are  but  few.     The  passions  of 

1  Supra,  p.  33. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR    KENT        143 

party  have  carried  the  generality  of  them  along  the  turbu- 
lent stream  of  the  times.  Even  Judge  Benson  has  yielded 
to  the  current,  and  with  the  generous  fidelity  of  party  spirit 
has  declared  he  will  go  with  his  party,  and  has  voted  for  the 
Burr  ticket  throughout. 

I  went  out  with  General  Hamilton  on  Saturday,  the  21st, 
and  stayed  till  Sunday  evening.  There  was  a  furious  and 
dreadful  storm  on  Saturday  night.  It  blew  almost  a  hurri- 
cane. His  house  stands  high  and  was  very  much  exposed, 
and  I  am  certain  that  in  the  second  story,  where  I  slept,  it 
rocked  like  a  cradle.  He  never  appeared  before  so  friendly 
and  amiable.  I  was  alone,  and  he  treated  me  with  a  minute 
attention  that  I  did  not  suppose  he  knew  how  to  bestow. 
His  manners  were  also  very  delicate  and  chaste.  His 
daughter,  who  is  nineteen  years  old,  has  a  very  uncommon 
simplicity  and  modesty  of  deportment,  and  he  appeared  in 
his  domestic  state  the  plain,  modest,  and  affectionate  father 
and  husband.  Mr.  Boyd  came  out  and  fetched  me  home, 
and  as  I  have  adjourned  business  during  the  election,  I  have 
kept  pretty  closely  in  Mr.  Boyd's  office  studying  my  unfin- 
ished cases. 

I  come  back  to  my  ruling  passion,  which  is  assuredly  not 
ambition  or  glory  or  avarice,  but  literary  and  elegant  retire- 
ment and  a  glowing  and  vehement  attachment  to  my  wife 
and  children. 

Despite  his  increased  cares  in  his  important  judicial 
oflfice,  Judge  Kent  not  only  did  not  abandon  his  habits 
of  systematic  reading  and  study,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
his  position  appeared  to  increase  his  ardor  and  thirst 
for  knowledge.  "  It  is  only,"  he  VvTote  to  his  brother 
in  1799,  "by  becoming  thoroughly  master  of  Greek 
and  Roman  learning,  — 

'  Of  all  the  ancient  sages  thought, 
The  ancient  bards  sublimely  taught,' — 


144        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

and  also  a  profound  acquaintance  with  English  classics 
and  with  the  sages  of  the  law,  that  a  man  can  attain  to 
distinction  and  dignity  and  impart  to  the  mind  all  its 
energies  and  all  its  grandeur.  I  am  reading  Tacitus 
and  Erskine  and  Ferguson  and  the  reviews,  all  in  the 
course  of  the  same  day,  and  have  made  new  and  most 
fixed  resolutions  to  pass  thro'  the  vestibule  and  enter 
the  venerable  temple  of  learning."  For  several  years 
during  this  period,  it  was  his  habit  to  make,  annually, 
a  record  of  the  works  he  had  read  during  the  year 
past.  These  records  always  included  extensive  re- 
searches in  the  realm  of  jurisprudence,  besides  wide 
reading  of  Latin,  French,  and  English  authors.  In  the 
year  1799,  "  after  ist  of  August,"  he  notes  that  he  read 
Tacitus  and  Juvenal,  Mably's  Le  Droit  Public  de  I'Eu- 
rope,  four  volumes  of  Raynal,  the  New  American 
Review  for  1797,  Gillies'  View  of  the  Reign  of  Frede- 
rick n.  of  Prussia,  Pursuits  of  Literature,  Robertson's 
Histories  of  North  and  South  America,  Ferguson's 
Roman  Republic,  Ulloa,  nine  volumes  of  European 
Magazine,  beside  several  volumes  of  reviews.  In 
1800  he  read  Horace  in  Latin,  six  volumes  of  Raynal 
and  Voltaire's  Peter  the  Great  in  French,  and  in  Eng- 
lish, twenty  volumes  European  Magazine,  Parker's 
Travels,  Vaillant's  Travels,  the  New  American  Review 
for  1798,  the  Asiatic  Register  for  1799,  Lynne's  Em- 
bassy, Bectron's  Lippoa,  four  volumes  Asiatic  Re- 
searches, Bonaparte's  Correspondence  (in  Egypt), 
Clymer's  Narrative,  Houta's  Switzerland,  Costera's 
Catherine  II.,  and  Coxe's  Russia. 

In   1 801  his  Latin  and  French  reading  was  more 
extended.     He  read  Florus  (Epitome  de  Gestis  Ro- 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        145 

manorum),  Sallust,  Paterculus  (Historiae  Romanse), 
Juvenal,  and  Grotius'  Mare  Liberum.  In  the  French 
he  perused,  according  to  his  record,  Vertot's  Seulden, 
Bougeant's  Westphalia,  De  Pauni's  America,  and  two 
volumes  Anacharsis  (Barthelemy's  Voyage  du  jeune 
Anacharsis  en  Grece,  4  volumes,  1788).  In  English  he 
read  Coxe's  Sweden,  Swinburne,  Mordaunt  (Moore), 
The  Nation,  Roscoe's  Lorenzo  (William  Roscoe,  Life 
of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici),  Selden's  Mare  Clausum, 
Tooke's  Russia,  Garrick,  by  Murphy,  and  Clavigero's 
Mexico,  besides  a  large  number  of  volumes  of  maga- 
zines and  reviews,  and  journals  of  Congress. 

In  1802  he  read  Virgil,  Eutropius,  Lucian,  and 
Juvenal.  In  French,  parts  of  Gibbon  (Memoires 
Litteraires  de  la  Grande  Bretagne?),  and  the  two 
remaining  volumes  of  Anacharsis.  In  English,  the 
record  includes  Hampton's  Polybius,  Melmoth's  Pliny, 
Gibbon's  Rome  (twelve  volumes).  History  of  the  Cam- 
paigns, McKenzie's  Travels,  Webster  on  Pestilence, 
Barrows'  Travels,  Billings'  Voyages,  Rennell's  Memoir 
of  the  Geography  of  Africa,  Gibbon's  Miscellanies, 
Salmon's  Rome,  Gifford's  Juvenal,  and  reviews  and 
magazines  innumerable. 

"  I  have  entered  with  indefatigable  ardor,"  he 
writes  to  his  brother  in  December,  1802,  "on  my 
course  of  studies,  and  am  making  great  strides  in 
the  several  books  to  which  I  am  confined."  And 
again,  a  year  later :  "  I  got  home  from  New  York 
much  sooner  than  I  expected,  and  I  have  brought 
home,  as  usual,  a  fresh  supply  of  new  books  for  my 
winter's  amusement,  and  have  entered  on  my  studies 
with  spirit  and  resolution."     In  1804  he  read  Bacon, 


146        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

Sparks*  Washington,  Shakespeare,  and  Boswell's 
Johnson,  besides  legal  writings  in  French  and  Eng- 
lish, and  Horace,  Cicero  de  Officiis,  and  Sallust. 
In  1805  he  records  among  his  readings  Cicero  de 
Legibus,  Livy,  and  Juvenal  again.  In  English,  he 
read  Stewart's  Philosophy,  Gillies'  translation  of 
Aristotle,  Pinkerton's  Geography,  Elements  of  Criti- 
cism, and  Drake's  Literary  Hour.  In  1806  he  took 
up  Horace  once  more,  and  read  the  Georgics  of 
Virgil;  in  English,  Roscoe's  Leo  X.,  Cumberland's 
Life,  The  Secret  History  of  St.  Cloud,  Jackson  on 
Commerce,  and  several  volumes  of  the  Edinburgh 
Review. 

In  July  of  this  year  he  refers  to  these  readings  in 
a  letter  to  his  brother :  "  I  have  got  hold  of  and  am 
reading  some  of  the  latest  publications;  as,  Roscoe's 
Leo  X.,  in  four  volumes,  a  present  from  Elisha 
Kane;  Cumberland's  Memoirs,  Life  of  Lord  Nelson, 
and  Secret  Anecdotes  of  the  Court  at  St.  Cloud." 

During  this  period  scarcely  a  letter  out  of  the 
many  written  to  his  brother  fails  to  contain  some 
reference  to  his  reading  and  studies.  "  I  have  laid 
out  above  ^100  in  books,  and  my  library  of  course 
progresses  in  knowledge  and  value,"  he  writes  after 
his  return  from  a  stay  in  New  York.  And  again : 
"  I  have  just  finished  the  fifth  and  last  volume  of 
Washington's  Life,  and  it  is  worth  all  the  rest.  It  is 
an  excellent  history  of  the  government  and  parties 
in  this  country  from  1783  to  the  death  of  the  General. 
There  are  few  other  works  which  are  new  that  I  have 
purchased,  except  some  law-books." 

In  August,  1807,  during  one  of  the  brief  periodical 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR  KENT        147 

absences  of  his  wife  from  home,  he  writes  to  her  one 
of  those  sparkling  letters  which  must  have  been  so 
welcome  to  the  absent  one :  — 

Judge  Kent  to  his  Wife. 

On  Wednesday  I  had  two  old  bachelors  to  dine  with  me, 
Mr.  Johnson  and  Captain  Benson ;  and  my  present  situa- 
tion is  very  much  in  the  same  gloomy  and  forlorn  state,  or 
partaking  of  the  same  aspect.  We  formed  a  plain  and 
grave  society.  In  the  afternoon  Graham  took  Will  and  me 
out  in  his  carriage  to  Whitehall ;  and  there  I  found  the 
young  collection  of  Misses  who  had  walked  out  at  six  in  the 
morning  and  had  a  very  romping  day.  We  sat  down,  a  large 
party,  to  a  grand  tea-table  loaded  with  boiled  com.  In  the 
evening  Judge  Sedgwick  smoked  his  segar  here,  and  railed 
in  company  with  me  at  modern  degeneracy,  and  sighed  over 
the  ruins  of  ancient  virtue.  Yesterday  morning  was  very 
rainy;  and  while  I  had  risen  early  and  walked  the  room 
a  little,  and  got  just  prepared  for  a  fine  intellectual  feast 
on  one  of  my  new  French  books,  who  should  knock  but 
General  North,  who  said  he  came  to  breakfast  and  to  stay 
till  the  rain  was  over.  Away  went  in  an  instant  the  bright- 
ness of  the  vision,  and  down  I  sat  to  stale  chat,  and  with 
mortified  resignation  at  the  loss  of  a  day.  But  fortunately, 
after  breakfast  the  sun  broke  out,  and  I  was  left  to  pursue 
my  career.  My  library  has  at  present  prodigious  charms 
and  incomprehensible  interest.  I  pore  over  it  all  the  day 
long,  and  enjoy  the  hard  study  and  spare  diet  which  many 
a  wife  has  disliked  as  well  as  Milton's.  This  morning  I 
also  rose  very  early  to  seek  for  peaches  for  the  children. 
Be  assured  I  take  excellent  care  of  them.  We  go  to  bed 
early.  The  chamber  is  rather  solitar)-.  It  wants  the  in- 
spiring presence  of  my  wife ;  but  still  it  is  neat,  clean, 
and  quiet,  and  I  enjoy  the  gentle  slumbers  of  a  temperate 
and  honest  student. 


148        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

During  the  whole  period  of  his  Hfe  Mr.  Kent  made 
many,  and  for  the  time  very  extensive,  tours  through- 
out the  Eastern  States  and  Canada.  These  tours  he 
usually  made  in  the  ordinary  public  conveyances  of 
the  day, —  either  coach  or  post-chaise,  —  and  at  times 
in  his  own  wagon,  or  "  chair."  He  was  frequently 
accompanied  by  his  wife,  and,  in  later  life,  perhaps  by 
one  of  his  daughters.  The  record  of  each  of  these 
tours  was  faithfully  kept,  but  they  are  for  the  most  part 
dry,  and  devoid  of  those  details  which  usually  make 
the  tales  of  a  traveller  such  pleasant  reading.  He 
seems,  unfortunately,  to  have  neglected  to  note  little 
incidents  of  the  trip  which  cast  their  bright  light  on 
the  ordinary  details  of  life,  and  to  have  contented  him- 
self with  the  bold  and  practical  description  of  the  wood 
and  fields  and  villages  which  he  traversed  ;  which  has 
rendered  these  journals  rather  fitted  for  a  descriptive 
geography  than  a  miscellaneous  biography. 

Among  Chancellor  Kent's  journals  and  memoranda 
is  discovered  a  minute  concerning  his  travels.  "  While 
I  resided  at  Poughkeepsie,"  he  records,  "  I  began  first 
to  make  my  travelling  excursions,  which  in  after  life 
contributed  so  largely  to  my  health  and  delight.  The 
first  trip  that  I  made  with  my  wife  was  in  August, 
1788,  to  New  York  and  to  the  fishing  banks.  We 
went  from  Poughkeepsie  in  a  sloop,  and  together  with 
General  Bailey  and  General  Hughes  and  their  wives 
we  went  from  New  York  to  Sandy  Hook  in  a  sloop, 
and  say  ten  miles  at  sea,  and  landed  and  wandered 
about  the  sands  at  the  lighthouse,  and  then  we  re- 
turned and  went  from  New  York  to  Rockaway,  and 
were  highly  delighted  with  the  spectacle  of  the  ocean. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        149 

In  July,  1 79 1, 1  went  alone  on  horseback  to  Troy,  and 
then,  with  my  dear  old  father,  we  crossed  over  to 
Waterford,  and  kept  up  on  the  west  side  of  the 
Mohawk  to  Schenectady,  and  on  to  Canajoharie, 
where  we  visited  the  Kanes  and  my  brother.  The 
next  day  they  joined  us,  and  we  proceeded  up  the 
Mohawk  to  Whitestown  and  lodged.  We  swam  our 
horses  over  the  Mohawk  at  Utica,  then  called  Old 
Fort  Schuyler.  There  we  saw  Elias  Kane  and  his 
new  store,  and  Peter  Smith,  a  young  grocer,  in  a 
shanty,  who  turned  out  to  be  afterwards  the  very 
wealthy  Peter  Smith,  father  of  Gerrit  Smith,  the 
great  and  fanatical  abolitionist.  The  father  was  a 
plain  and  interesting  young  man.  Jonas  Piatt  had 
just  settled  with  his  young  wife  at  Whitestown,  and 
he  went  with  us  to  Fort  Stanwix,  now  Rome.  The 
road  was  through  the  woods  to  the  old  fort,  all  then 
standing  in  naked  desolation.  We  saw  in  the  woods, 
at  Oriskany,  the  vestiges  of  the  battle  in  1777,  when 
General  Herkimer  was  killed.  The  road  on  the  Mo- 
hawk below  the  German  Flatts,  up  to  which  the  old 
settlements  had  reached,  led  through  the  Mohawk 
Flatts,  covered  with  peas,  oats,  wheat,  and  corn,  which 
seemed  to  me  to  be  a  perfect  paradise.  The  Plains 
of  Campagna  Felice  never  surpassed  them  in  luxuri- 
ance and  beauty. 

"The  next  journey  was  in  September,  1792,  with 
my  wife,  in  a  new  gig  and  horse,  —  which  I  had  made 
out,  after  two  years'  effort,  to  purchase,  —  up  the  Hud- 
son to  Albany,  and  up  the  Mohawk  to  Canajoharie, 
and  then  over  the  hills  to,  now,  Sharon  and  Spring- 
field, to  my  brother's  store  and  ashery  [potash  works], 


I50        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

for  he  then  had  become  a  country  merchant,  and  there 
we  lodged  surrounded  by  the  tall  maples  and  beeches. 
The  next  day  we  went  to  the  head  of  Otsego  Lake  and 
got  rowed  through  it  nine  miles  to  infant  Cooperstown, 
where  we  lodged.  This  was  the  iic  plus  iiltra  of  our 
tour.  No  European  jaunt  could  have  charmed  us 
more,  though  it  might  infinitely  have  instructed  us. 
On  this  tour  we  stayed  with  T.  V.  W.  Graham,  Esq., 
of  Albany,  a  cousin  of  Mrs.  Kent,  and  a  prosperous 
young  lawyer.  We  went  to  Waterford  and  visited 
the  Cohoes  with  Mrs.  Davies,  the  mother  of  Henry 
Davies,  the  lawyer.  On  our  return  to  Albany  we 
visited  Peter  Van  Schaack,  at  Kinderhook,  and  my 
Federal  essays  and  zeal  in  favor  of  Mr.  Jay's  election 
procured  me  a  warm  reception  and  compHments. 
I  was  become  quite  famous  by  my  various  little  pro- 
ductions and  political  declamations  in  the  village 
print  at  Poughkeepsie ;  so  much  so  that  in  one  of 
Fenno's  Gazettes  at  Philadelphia,  he  extracted  one, 
and  by  preface  said,  '  An  elegant  writer  in  a  Pough- 
keepsie Journal  of  the  2d  inst.,  whose  productions 
we  conjecture  have  before  contributed  to  the  enter- 
tainment of  our  readers,'  etc.,  etc.  I  have  now  in  my 
garret  Fenno's  Gazettes  in  several  volumes,  bound. 
They  were  the  '  National  Intelligencer  '  of  that  day. 

"  Mr.  Van  Schaack  entertained  us  at  Kinderhook 
most  kindly,  and  we  admired  his  charming  Dutch 
wife.  He  was  as  full  of  Mr.  Jay's  election  and  the 
abomination  of  the  seven  canvassers  as  I  was,  and 
was  besides  delightful  by  his  anecdotes,  and  classic 
and  poetical  quotations,  and  keen  and  polished  criti- 
cisms, and  apposite  allusions." 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        151 

The  first  extended  journey  which  Mr.  Kent  made 
was  to  Fort  Stanwix  and  Wood  Creek.  Upon  the 
manuscript  record  of  this  journey  he  made  this  mem- 
orandum :  "  My  dear  father  accompanied  me,  and  my 
brother  also,  in  part  west  of  Canajoharie."  Wood 
Creek,  he  explains,  is  about  one  mile  west  of  Fort 
Stanwix,  and  Fort  Stanwix  one  hundred  and  twelve 
miles  west  of  Albany,  at  the  head  of  the  navigation 
of  the  Mohawk  River.  The  journey  was  performed, 
for  the  most  part,  by  water  up  the  Mohawk.  At 
times  he  would  leave  the  river  and  take  short  journeys 
into  the  country,  observing  the  condition  of  the  soil, 
the  luxuriance  of  the  crops,  and  the  habits  and  man- 
ners of  the  people. 

In  1794  the  journey  was  to  New  Utrecht,  Long 
Island.  On  this  journey  he  was  accompanied  by  Mrs. 
Kent  and  two  gentlemen.  The  interest  was  chiefly 
centered  on  a  newly  erected  bath-house,  —  or,  as  it 
would  be  called  in  this  day,  club-house,  —  erected  by  a 
company  of  subscribers,  including  some  of  the  per- 
sonal friends  of  the  party.  Here  a  stop  was  made  for 
a  day,  the  party  obtaining  excellent  accommodations 
at  reasonable  rates.  After  a  visit  at  Flatbush,  the 
return  home  was  quickly  made. 

The  next  year  a  journey,  which  had  long  been 
planned,  was  made  to  Lake  Champlain.  Ticonderoga 
and  Crown  Point  and  the  islands  of  the  lake  were  vis- 
ited ;  after  which  the  journey  was  extended  to  Mon- 
treal. Again,  in  1797,  Mr.  Kent,  accompanied  by  his 
wife,  made  an  extended  tour  through  the  Eastern 
States.  The  route  lay  by  packet  to  Newport,  thence 
to  Providence  and  Boston,  in  both   of  which  cities 


152        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

short  visits  were  made.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  his 
notes  concerning  these  important  Eastern  cities  are  so 
meagre.  His  interest,  however,  would  seem  to  have 
been  centered  mainly  upon  the  agricultural  regions 
of  the  East,  and  the  people  who  inhabited  them. 
From  Boston  the  journey  was  continued,  much  of  the 
way  by  post  chaise  or  private  conveyance,  through 
a  portion  of  New  Hampshire  and  the  valley  of  the 
Connecticut.  Visits  were  made  at  Springfield,  North- 
field,  and  Hadley,  whence  the  course  was  taken  south- 
ward to  Hartford  and  New  Haven,  and  thence  to  New 
York. 

Two  years  later,  with  his  wife.  Judge  Kent  made  a 
brief  trip  to  Newburgh,  which  he  describes  in  his 
memorandum  as  "  enchantingly  pleasant."  "  The 
sum  of  the  happiness  of  human  life,"  he  notes,  "  as 
Dr.  Johnson  has  sagely  remarked,  is  made  up  of  petty 
incidents  and  trifling  circumstances."  A  passage  in 
this  memorandum  is  interesting,  as  illustrating  Judge 
Kent's  powers  of  description.  "  The  river  is  here  a 
mile  and  a  half  wide,"  he  writes.  "  The  water  was 
smooth,  the  radiance  of  the  western  sky  mild  and 
beautiful ;  and  shortly  after  we  had  entered  on  the 
river  the  full  moon  just  appeared,  rising  over  the  top 
of  the  Fishkill  Mountains  and  tingeing  the  feathered 
clouds  around  her.  The  evening  had  already  cast 
too  deep  and  brown  a  shade  for  us  to  perceive  ob- 
jects distinctly  at  a  distance ;  but  the  grandeur  of 
the  river,  the  town  of  Newburgh  on  the  western 
bank,  and  the  solemnity  of  the  mountain  view  to 
the  south  rendered  the  scene  as  interesting  as  it  was 
transient.    After  landinsj  at  Newbureh  we  walked  on 


MEMOIRS  OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 


153 


the  new  Windsor  Road  for  a  mile  and  a  half  to  Mr. 
Boyd's.  It  was  a  walk  peculiarly  impressive.  The 
moon  shone  clear,  but  the  road  and  place  of  desti- 
nation were  to  us  new  and  unknown,  and  conspired 
to  give  anxiety  and  interest  to  the  walk.  We  de- 
scended down  a  long  hill  to  Chamber's  Creek.  The 
valley  was  deep  and  long,  and  covered  with  woods. 
It  rung  with  the  serious  music  of  the  katydid,  and  it 
left  an  avenue  open  to  the  east  just  sufficient  for  to 
throw  the  eye  on  the  Hudson.  After  having  passed 
the  valley  with  spirit  and  intrepidity,  and  ascended  the 
opposite  hill  perfectly  safe  and  sound  from  any  as- 
saults from  dogs  or  fiercer  men,  or  any  startling  spec- 
ters of  the  night,  or  of  the  imagination,  we  found  the 
snug  and  happy  dwelling  of  Mr.  Boyd,  and  a  cordial 
and  friendly  reception.  The  landscape  around  him 
was  very  fine.  It  was  at  once  rural  and  rugged  and 
sublime.  To  the  north  you  heard  at  a  little  distance 
the  murmur  and  falls  of  the  Chamber's  Creek  deeply 
sheltered  from  the  view.  To  the  west,  at  the  distance 
of  a  couple  of  miles,  there  arose  a  solitary  and  rocky 
and  bald-featured  hill.  To  the  east  you  had  a  glimpse 
of  the  Hudson  through  the  aperture  of  the  hills  we 
had  just  traversed,  and  beyond  the  river  to  the  east 
and  to  the  south  the  sight  was  bounded  by  the  High- 
lands, a  range  of  grand  and  lofty  mountains. 

"  We  were  awakened  in  the  morning  of  Saturday, 
September  14,  by  the  lightning  and  thunder  of  a  cloud 
in  the  west.  It  hung  round  the  western  horizon  from 
daybreak  till  8  o'clock,  and  it  then  came  over  in  a 
most  awful  and  majestic  manner.  A  gloomy  scud 
rapidly  preceded  it  and  crossed  the  river  to  the  east 


154        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

and  skirted  the  mountains.  The  effulgence  of  the 
eastern  sky  was  suddenly  darkened,  the  summit  of  the 
mountains  appeared  towering  above  the  scud  for  a  few 
minutes,  and  gave  the  scene  inexpressible  grandeur. 
I  never  saw  anything  to  be  compared  to  the  awe  and 
sublimity  of  the  view.  But  the  atmosphere  was  too 
soon  filled  by  the  tempest.  The  shower  became  furious 
and  threatening,  with  the  incessant  flashes  of  lightning 
and  roar  of  the  thunder.  It  lasted  about  half  an  hour ; 
and  the  lightning  destroyed  a  barn  full  of  wheat,  on 
the  eastern  side  of  the  river  against  Newburgh." 

In  the  summer  of  1802  it  fell  to  Judge  Kent's  lot  to 
ride  the  Great  Western  Circuit,  which  included  a 
journey  of  some  six  hundred  or  seven  hundred  miles, 
to  be  performed  in  the  roughest  and  most  unculti- 
vated portion  of  the  State,  and,  as  it  was  then  thought 
to  be,  upon  the  limits  of  civilization.  That  this  trip 
should  have  been  performed  without  incident  or  un- 
pleasant adventure  argues  well  for  the  tranquillity  of 
the  country.  Incidentally  he  made  a  trip  to  Niagara 
Falls,  then  but  rarely  visited  from  the  Eastern  States, 
which  made  a  great  impression  on  his  imagination. 

Judge  Kent,  in  his  memorandum  made  of  this 
journey,  thus  describes  the  Falls  and  his  emotions 
at  beholding  them  :  — 

"The  sheet  was  a  deep  green,  due  to  the  great 
thickness  of  the  column.  The  spray,  the  cloud  of 
vapor,  the  roar,  the  violent  swiftness,  foam,  abrupt  and 
broken  waves,  and  terrible  concussion  and  reverbera- 
tion of  the  water  below  the  abyss,  overwhelmed  us 
with  astonishment  mingled  with  terror.  We  pro- 
ceeded to  the  edge  of  the  falling  column,  and  no  far- 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        155 

ther  is  it  in  the  power  of  man  to  go.  The  dark  abyss 
behind  the  column  cannot  be  penetrated,  and  if  it 
could,  the  violence  of  the  wind  and  tempest  would 
destroy  all  power  of  breathing.  I  am  satisfied  it 
never  was  or  will  be  penetrated,  I  stopped  short  of 
the  ne  plus  ultra,  and  terror  at  last  overpowered  in  me 
every  other  sensation.  I  also  almost  trod  on  a  rattle- 
snake, coiled  up  before  me,  which  added  mightily  to 
my  apprehension  of  danger.  I  passed  under  the 
Table  Rock,  which  projects  over  from  the  top  of  the 
enormous  precipice  in  a  most  threatening  position. 
I  went  on  until  I  saw  a  little  Table  Rock  and  several 
other  large  shelving  rocks  hanging  in  the  air  over  my 
head  at  an  enormous  height.  The  large  and  broken 
fragments  of  the  falling  rocks,  which  are  almost  daily 
crumbling  off,  lay  all  around  me  with  marks  of  very 
recent  fall. 

"  The  rain  beat  vehemently  on  me,  the  sides  of  the 
stony  mountains  where  I  stood  were  extremely  slip- 
pery, the  thunder  of  the  waters  drowned  every  other 
noise  and  almost  overpowered  the  senses.  The  un- 
fathomable abyss  into  which  the  river  precipitates, 
and  from  which  it  rushes  with  convulsive  foam  and 
impetuosity  lay  before  me.  I  felt  no  remaining  im- 
pression but  terror  and  awe,  and  I  turned  back  to  a 
place  of  less  danger,  and  where  pleasure  would  revive. 
I  cannot  compare  the  scene  below  the  Falls  to  anything 
in  nature,  nor  do  I  believe  such  another  scene  exists. 
How  poor,  feeble,  and  insignificant  a  creature  is  man, 
placed  at  the  foot  of  such  sublime  and  terror-inspiring 
scenes,  such  application  of  incalculable  powers  in 
nature.    All  other  objects  dwindle  into  comparative  in- 


156        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

significance.  The  scene  sets  all  comparison,  all  rival- 
ship  at  defiance.  It  is,  in  one  word,  the  most  awful 
and  sublime  of  the  wonderful  works  of  nature." 

Under  the  date  of  October  2,  1807,  is  found  a 
memorandum  which  is  of  peculiar  interest.  Hereto- 
fore the  journeys  made  by  Mr.  Kent,  by  water,  had 
been  made  in  packet  vessels ;  but  on  this  date  he 
records  his  first  experience  in  travelling  by  means 
of  steam.  In  August,  1807,  the  first  steamboat 
employed  in  regular  service  in  this  country,  the 
"  Clermont,"  was  put  upon  the  route  between  New 
York  and  Albany,  on  the  Hudson  River.  Two 
months  later  than  this  event  he  writes  from  New 
York  to  his  brother :  — 

I  went  up  as  far  as  Hudson  in  the  steamboat  in  precisely 
five  hours,  and  I  was  charmed  with  it.  It  goes  up  and  down 
the  river  twice  a  week,  and  went  off  on  Wednesday  from  here 
with  sixty  passengers,  and  will  bring  up  to-morrow  a  case  of 
fresh  fish.  This  boat  is  all  the  rage  here.  The  new  market 
is  in  operation  in  my  street,  and  the  old  one  is  pulled  down. 
This  makes  it  very  lively,  and  we  think  very  pleasant,  before 
our  door.  The  steamboat  station  is  at  the  dock  at  the 
bottom  of  my  street. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        157 


VII 

IN  such  a  wise  the  life  of  James  Kent  passed,  until  in 
it  a  new  era  dawned.  It  was  in  1798  that  he  be- 
came a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court.  In  the  capacity, 
first  of  justice,  and  later  of  chief-justice,  he  passed 
sixteen  years,  and  to  him,  happy  years.  His  ambi- 
tion to  reach  a  judicial  position  was  amply  gratified. 
His  means,  although  not  great,  were  ample  for  the 
comfortable  support  of  his  family  and  for  the  gratifica- 
tion of  his  desire  for  the  accumulation  of  books.  The 
wife  of  his  youth  was  the  companion  of  his  middle 
years,  and  his  domestic  life  was  to  him  a  constant 
source  of  delight  and  satisfaction.  In  February,  18 14, 
he  was  transferred  to  the  Court  of  Chancery,  and 
appointed  Chancellor.  His  commission  to  this  ex- 
alted office  bears  date  of  February  24,  18 14,  and  the 
signature  of  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  Governor.  The 
circumstances  attending  his  entrance  upon  this  impor- 
tant position,  and  his  method  of  conducting  his  office, 
are  best  told  in  his  own  words.  In  his  letter  to 
Thomas  Washington,  written  in  1828,  from  which 
epistle  copious  extracts  have  already  been  m^ade, 
he  says : — 

"In  1814  I  was  appointed  Chancellor.  The  office 
I  took  with  considerable  reluctance.  It  had  no  charms. 
The  person  who  left  it  was  stupid,  and  it  is  a  curious 
fact  that  for  the  nine  years  I  was  in  that  office  there 


158        MEMOIRS  OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

was  not  a  single  decision,  opinion,  or  dictum  of  either 
of  my  two  predecessors  (Ch.  Livingston  and  Ch, 
Lansing),  from  1777  to  18 14,  cited  to  me  or  even 
suo"0"ested.  I  took  the  court  as  if  it  had  been  a  new 
institution,  and  never  before  known  in  the  United 
States.  I  had  nothing  to  guide  me,  and  was  left  at 
liberty  to  assume  all  such  English  Chancery  powers 
and  jurisdiction  as  I  thought  applicable  under  our 
Constitution.  This  gave  me  grand  scope,  and  I  was 
checked  only  by  the  revision  of  the  Senate,  or  Court 
of  Errors.  I  opened  the  gates  of  the  court  immedi- 
ately, and  admitted,  almost  gratuitously,  the  first  year, 
eighty-five  counsellors,  though  I  found  there  had  not 
been  thirteen  admitted  for  thirteen  years  before. 
Business  flowed  in  with  a  rapid  tide.  The  result 
appears  in  the  seven  volumes  of  Johnson's  Chancery 
Reports. 

"  My  course  of  study  in  equity  jurisprudence  was 
very  much  confined  to  the  topics  elicited  by  the  cases. 
I  had  previously,  of  course,  the  modern  equity  reports 
down  to  that  time,  and,  of  course,  I  read  all  the  new 
ones  as  fast  as  I  could  procure  them.  I  remember 
reading  Peere  Williams  as  early  as  1792,  and  made  a 
digest  of  the  leading  doctrines.  The  business  of  the 
Court  of  Chancery  oppressed  me  very  much,  but  I 
took  my  daily  exercise  and  my  delightful  rides  among 
the  Catskill  or  the  Vermont  Mountains,  with  my  wife, 
and  kept  up  my  health  and  spirits.  I  always  took  up 
the  cases  in  their  order,  and  never  left  one  until  I  had 
finished  it.     This  was  only  doing  one  thing  at  a  time. 

"  My  practice  was,  first,  to  make  myself  perfectly 
and  accurately  (mathematically  accurately)  master  of 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        159 

the  facts.  It  was  done  by  abridging  the  bill,  and  then 
the  answers,  and  then  the  depositions,  and  by  the  time 
I  had  done  this  slow  and  tedious  process,  I  was  master 
of  the  cause  and  ready  to  decide  it.  I  saw  where 
justice  lay,  and  the  moral  sense  decided  the  court 
half  the  time ;  and  I  then  sat  down  to  search  the 
authorities  until  I  had  examined  my  books.  I  might 
once  in  a  while  be  embarrassed  by  a  technical  rule, 
but  I  most  always  found  principles  suited  to  my 
views  of  the  case ;  my  object  was  so  to  discuss  a 
point  as  never  to  be  teased  with  it  again,  and  to  an- 
ticipate an  angry  and  vexatious  appeal  to  a  popular 
tribunal  by  disappointed  counsel. 

"  During  these  years  at  Albany  I  read  a  great  deal 
of  English  literature,  but  not  with  the  discipline  of  my 
former  division  of  time.  The  avocations  of  business 
would  not  permit  it.  I  had  dropped  the  Greek,  as  it 
hurt  my  eyes ;  I  persevered  in  Latin,  and  used  to  read 
Virgil,  Horace,  Juvenal,  Lucian,  Sallust,  Tacitus,  and 
Cicero's  Offices,  and  some  of  them  annually.  I  have 
read  Juvenal,  Horace,  and  Virgil  eight  or  ten  times. 
I  read  the  Edinburgh  and  Quarterly  Reviews  and 
American  Registers  ab  mitio  and  thoroughly,  and 
voyages  and  travels  and  the  Waverley  novels,  etc.,  etc., 
as  other  folks  do.  I  have  always  been  excessively 
fond  of  voyages  and  travels." 

It  has  been  the  intent,  in  the  preparation  of  this 
work,  to  display  to  the  mind  of  the  reader  Kent  the 
man,  rather  than  Kent  the  lawyer  and  judge.  Of  the 
character  of  this  man,  in  his  professional  capacity, 
the  volumes  of  his  "  Commentaries,"  and  the  volumi- 
nous Chancery  Reports  are,  in  themselves,  an  ample 


i6o       MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

exposition.  Since,  however,  the  personal  intimacy 
of  Judge  Kent  with  Alexander  Hamilton  has  been  so 
fully  shown  forth,  and  the  undoubted  connection  has 
been  disclosed  which  existed  between  certain  utter- 
ances of  Judge  Kent  and  the  memorable  duel  on  the 
banks  of  the  Hudson,  in  the  summer  of  1804,  one  of 
the  opinions  rendered  by  Chancellor  Kent  is  deserving 
of  notice  in  his  biography.  In  18 16,  four  years  after 
the  death  of  Alexander  Hamilton  and  probably  in- 
spired by  that  event,  the  Assembly  of  the  State  of 
New  York  passed  an  act  to  suppress  duelling.  By  the 
provisions  of  this  act  every  person  elected  or  appointed 
to  any  public  office  in  the  State  was  obliged  to  incor- 
porate in  his  official  oath  the  engagement  that  he  had 
not  taken  part  in  a  duel  during  the  year  just  past,  and 
that  he  would  not  do  so  in  the  future.  The  act  came 
up  before  the  Council  of  Revision,  that  its  constitu- 
tionality might  be  passed  upon  by  that  tribunal.  The 
Council  at  that  time  consisted  of  the  Governor,  Mr. 
Chancellor  Kent,  Mr.  Chief-Justice  Thompson,  Judges 
Spencer,  Van  Ness,  Yates,  and  Piatt.  Although  the 
Chancellor  did  not  succeed  in  bringing  the  majority 
of  the  Council  over  to  his  views,  the  opinion  is  of 
interest,  since  he  unquestionably  sacrificed  his  own 
personal  feelings  and  opinions,  upon  the  question  of 
duelling  in  the  abstract,  to  what  he  regarded  as  the 
principle  of  constitutional  liberty.  The  opinion  here 
follows :  — 

"  The  Chancellor,  to  whom  was  committed  the  bill 
entitled  An  Act  to  Suppress  Duelling,  reports  that 
the  bill  is  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  of  the  Constitu- 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        i6i 

tion  and  the  public  good,  and  ought  not  to  become  a 
law :  —  Because, 

"  By  the  second  section  of  the  bill  every  person  to 
be  elected  a  member  of  the  Senate  or  Assembly,  or 
to  be  elected  or  appointed  to  any  office,  civil  or  mili- 
tary, except  town  officers,  and  every  person  to  be  ad- 
mitted a  counsellor,  attorney,  or  solicitor  of  any  court, 
shall  in  addition  to  the  oaths  now  prescribed  by  law, 
take  an  oath  or  affirmation  that  he  has  not  been  en- 
gaged or  concerned  in  a  duel  since  the  first  day  of 
July,  now  last  past  or  next  hereafter,  as  the  construc- 
tion may  be,  nor  will  be  so  concerned  during  the 
continuance  of  the  act  and  while  an  inhabitant  of  this 
State. 

"  This  provision  establishes  a  test,  or  qualification  for 
office,  unknown  to  the  Constitution,  dangerous  as  a  pre- 
cedent, and  inconsistent  with  the  principles  of  liberty. 

"  It  cannot  be  necessary  for  the  Council  to  declare 
that  they  solemnly  bear  testimony  against  the  prac- 
tice of  duelling,  as  being  cruel  and  wicked  and  equally 
condemned  by  the  law  of  the  land  and  by  the  just 
and  benevolent  precepts  of  Christianity.  To  take  life 
in  this  way  is  murder  by  the  common  law,  whether  he 
that  gave  or  he  that  accepted  the  challenge  falls. 
And  if  conviction  and  punishment  have  not  duly  fol- 
lowed the  crime,  it  has  not  been  the  fault  of  the  law, 
nor  of  the  judges  by  whom  it  was  pronounced. 

"  But  to  whatever  cause  we  may  impute  the  feeble 
execution  (as  the  bill  evidently  supposes)  of  the  ex- 
isting laws  on  this  subject,  there  is  no  occasion  that 
will  warrant  the  introduction  of  unsound  principles  of 
legislation. 

II 


1 62        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

"  Test  oaths  as  a  qualification  for  public  trusts,  other 
than  the  oath  of  allegiance  and  the  usual  oath  of 
office,  are  inconsistent  with  the  letter  and  spirit  of 
American  institutions.  In  some  instances  there  is  an 
express  declaration  against  them.  The  requisition  in 
the  present  case  is  not  founded  on  any  religious  test, 
but  is  equally  tyrannical ;  for  it  requires  every  man, 
before  he  can  enjoy  or  receive  any  public  trust,  to 
acquit  himself  upon  oath  of  a  particular  crime,  with- 
out being  legally  accused  of  it,  and  when  he  stands 
innocent  under  the  intendment  of  the  law.  The  bill 
in  this  respect  reverses  the  maxim  of  the  common 
law  and  presumes  every  man  guilty. 

"With  equal  right,  if  not  with  equal  reason,  he 
might  be  compelled  to  clear  himself  of  every  other 
crime,  without  being  put  to  answer  by  indictment  or 
presentment,  and  without  the  privilege  of  an  appeal 
to  his  peers.  It  is  dangerous  to  admit  a  principle  so 
destructive  of  civil  liberty  into  the  code  of  our  statute 
law.  A  most  terrible  inquisition  might  thus  be  cre- 
ated over  the  consciences  of  men. 

"The  penalty  of  refusal  to  answer  is  not  indeed  in 
this  case  the  rack,  or  the  stake,  but  it  is  extremely 
severe,  being  no  less  than  a  disqualification  to  hold 
any  place  of  honor,  profit,  or  trust,  or  even  to  exer- 
cise one  of  the  learned  professions. 

"  Duelling  does  not  appear  to  be  so  grievous  a 
public  evil,  nor  does  it  usually  denote  such  a  deprav- 
ity of  moral  principle,  as  other  examples  of  murder, 
and  as  arson,  rape,  forgery,  and  various  kinds  of  lar- 
ceny, swindling,  and  fraud.  It  often  proceeds  from  a 
lofty  and  scrupulous,  but  misguided,  sense  of  rcputa- 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        163 

tion.  Why  may  not,  then,  other  offences,  and  all 
other  immoral  acts,  be  brought  to  the  same  test  and 
checked  by  the  same  means? 

"  Times  may  hereafter  arise  when  an  undue  zeal  for 
reform,  or  a  fierce  and  intolerant  fanaticism,  might  be 
easily  led  to  proceed  from  crime  to  crime,  and  from 
one  misdemeanor  to  another,  with  the  same  potent 
remedy,  until  every  man  is  obliged  to  renounce  his 
civil  privilege  or  swear  to  the  purity  of  his  whole  life. 

"  The  bill  extends  this  oath  to  attorneys-at-law,  be- 
fore they  can  be  permitted  to  practice ;  but  it  is  not 
extended  to  candidates  for  the  other  learned  profes- 
sions, though  the  same  reason  would  seem  to  apply, 
and  though  the  admission  of  physicians  and  surgeons 
is  equally  the  subject  of  legislative  regulation.  The 
bill,  therefore,  is  not  impartial  in  the  imposition 
which  it  creates.  If  the  principle  be  just,  it  ought  to 
have  a  general  and  equal  application.  It  ought  to  be 
extended  not  only  to  candidates  for  office,  but  to  every 
man  who  offers  himself  to  vote,  and  especially  to  jurors, 
who  are  concerned  in  the  administration  of  justice. 

"  The  latter  part  of  the  oath  is  equally  new  and  re- 
pugnant to  sound  principles  of  government.  The 
oath  hitherto  imposed  upon  a  person  entering  into  a 
public  trust  is  the  ordinary  oath  of  office,  importing 
that  they  will  execute  their  trust  faithfully,  and  im- 
porting nothing  more ;  and  when  the  trust  ceases,  the 
obligation  of  the  oath  also  expires.  But  the  oath  in 
this  case  is  that  they  will  refrain  from  a  particular 
crime,  having  no  special  relation  to  their  office,  not 
only  while  in  office,  but  during  the  continuance  of  the 
act,  and  while  inhabitants  of  this  State. 


1 64        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

"  This  is  binding  by  a  religious  solemnity,  and 
for  life,  one  class  of  citizens,  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
rest,  and  in  their  private  as  well  as  public  capacity, 
to  obey  a  law  equally  applicable  to  all  the  community. 
There  is  no  reason  why  the  oath  should  apply  to  them 
when  they  become  private  citizens  any  more  than  to 
the  rest  of  the  people.  It  is  also  very  questionable 
whether  it  be  wise  or  expedient  to  bind  private  citi- 
zens by  oath  to  obey  any  particular  law  that  is  of 
public  and  permanent  concern. 

"The  impression  of  an  oath  is  apt  to  be  weakened 
in  proportion  as  it  is  less  special  in  its  object  and  less 
immediate  in  its  appHcation.  The  civil  obligation  to 
obey  the  law  is  the  same  without  as  with  the  oath ; 
and  to  call  in  the  aid  of  religion,  to  the  support  of  a 
single  case  in  the  penal  code,  may  impair  the  force 
and  sense  of  obligation  to  general  obedience. 

"  This  extraordinary  sanction  may  as  well  be  ap- 
plied to  every  as  to  any  public  law ;  and  the  effect  of 
such  a  provision  upon  the  efficiency  of  oaths  and  the 
consciences  of  those  who  take  them  would,  as  we 
fear,  be  exceedingly  injurious.  It  is  no  doubt  the 
duty  of  the  law-giver  to  provide  suitable  penalties  for 
the  violation  of  every  law ;  but  we  apprehend  that 
there  is  no  instance  to  be  met  with  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  civil  government  in  which  the  citizens  were 
called  on  to  bind  themselves  by  oath  to  the  perpetual 
observance  of  any  public  law. 

"  All  that  is  precious  and  valuable  in  society  de- 
pends upon  the  credit  of  testimony  upon  oath,  and 
every  measure  that  diminishes  the  reverence  or  im- 
pairs the  confidence  due  to  that  great  sanction  to 
truth  is  most  deeply  to  be  deplored." 


N 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        165 

The  objections  being  read  and  considered,  the 
bill  passed  notwithstanding;  the  Governor,  Ch.  J. 
Thompson,  Judges  Van  Ness  and  Yates  voting  for 
it,  and  Chancellor  Kent,  Judges  Spencer  and  Piatt 
against  it. 

The  Chancellor's  reverence  for  the  great  principle 
of  constitutional  liberty  is  further  illustrated  by  an 
anecdote  which  has  been  handed  down  in  family  tra- 
dition. It  is  currently  reported  in  the  family  history 
that  when  waited  upon  by  a  temperance  committee 
and  urged  to  give  his  authority  and  sanction  to  the 
principles  and  aims  of  a  mass  meeting  by  adding 
his  name  to  the  list  of  those  who  had  pledged  them- 
selves not  to  use  intoxicating  liquor,  being  unduly 
pressed  after  his  first  polite  negative,  he  made  the 
following  reply,  declining  the  request:  "Gentlemen, 
I  refuse  to  sign  any  pledge.  I  never  have  been  drunk, 
and,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  I  never  will  get  drunk, 
but  I  have  a  constitutional  privilege  to  get  drunk,  and 
that  privilege  I  will  not  sign  away." 

Judge  Kent  was  fifty-one  years  of  age  when  he  took 
his  seat  as  Chancellor.  As  has  been  detailed  in  his 
"  Memoranda,"  he  was  extremely  reluctant  to  accept 
the  office.  This  reluctance  arose  from  two  sources : 
first,  because  the  seat  on  the  Chancery  Bench  ap- 
peared anything  but  attractive  on  account  of  the  little 
influence  which  the  former  chancellors  had  wielded, 
and  the  moribund  condition  of  the  court;  but  princi- 
pally because  he  had  found  Albany  the  seat  of  intense 
party  strife.  The  surge  of  "Jacobinism"  which  had 
swept  over  the  country,  and  under  the  leadership 
of  Madison  had  plunged  the  United  States  into  war 


1 66        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR  KENT 

with  England,  had  made  him  weary  of  judicial  life. 
There  is  no  mistaking  Judge  Kent's  views  on  this  sub- 
ject, for  as  early  as  April  28,  1809,  he  writes  to  his 
brother : — 

James  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

April  28,  1809. 

The  pacification  with  England  is  a  very  propitious  event 
for  the  United  States  and  for  England,  and  I  think  that 
both  Governments  have  come  off  with  honor,  and  that  Eng- 
land has  seized  the  occasion  with  address  and  placed  us 
with  regard  to  France  just  where  she  wants  us. 

Few  and  brief  are  the  allusions  which  he  makes  to 
the  war. 

In  a  letter  to  his  brother,  November  10,  18 12,  he 
says : — 

I  am  not  very  anxious  about  the  election  of  Clinton, 
though  upon  the  whole  I  wish  it,  but  more  out  of  detesta- 
tion of  Madison's  war  conduct  than  confidence  in  Clinton's 
wish  for  peace.  It  is  the  election  for  the  next  House 
of  Representatives  on  which  I  repose  my  most  anxious 
hopes. 

In  July,  1813,  he  again  writes  to  his  brother,  then  a 
congressman  at  Washington  :  — 

Judge  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

July  14, 1813. 
Our  military  operations  on  the  Canadian  quarter  go  on 
very  much  to  my  mind.  Mr.  Gaston's  speech  is  admirable 
in  every  respect,  and  the  argument  of  the  Federalists  on 
Webster's  resolution  is  most  triumphant  and  unanswerable. 
Be  assured  I  sympathize  completely  in  all  the  feelings  that 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        167 

are  excited  against  the  abominable  war  of  Madison,  and 
which  will  more  and  more  fail  in  its  object,  for  it  grows 
daily  more  and  more  unpopular  and  feeble.  It  is  as  con- 
temptible as  it  is  wicked. 

Again,  the  same  year,  he  writes  to  the  same  cor- 
respondent: — 

Judge  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

December  24,  1813. 
The  prospect  of  our  affairs  is  chilling.  I  see  no  ground 
for  hope,  for  we  never  can  expect  peace  so  long  as  the  men 
reign  over  us  who  have  such  deadly  malice  towards  England. 
May  God  in  his  infinite  mercy  grant  speedy  and  rapid  and 
decisive  success  to  the  arms  of  the  allies  in  every  direction. 
If  Bonaparte  is  down,  our  government  will  relax  into  mod- 
eration and  justice,  but  not  before. 

Again,  in  April,  18 14,  he  writes  to  his  brother-in- 
law,  Hon.  Theodorus  Bailey :  — 

Albany  was  never  so  extravagantly  expensive  to  live  in, 
nor  never  so  thronged  with  people  as  it  has  been  this 
winter,  and  probably  never  will  be  again  for  many  years. 
I  have  no  doubt  we  shall  have  peace  this  summer.  Not  a 
bill  has  passed,  in  any  shape  whatever,  not  a  paragraph  in 
any  law,  that  looks  like  aid  or  approbation  of  the  war. 

That  Chancellor  Kent's  views  upon  the  war  were 
not  shared  by  many  of  his  intimate  friends  cannot 
be  doubted.  Perhaps  it  m.ay  be  that  Judge  Van 
Ness,  knowing  the  Chancellor's  opinions,  took  some 
enjoyment  in  bringing  before  his  eyes  the  action  of 
the  contending  armies,  as  appears  in  the  following 
letter :  — 


i68        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 
Judge  Van  Ness  to  Judge  Kent. 

Claverack,  December  8,  1813. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  congratulate  you  on  the  glorious  achieve- 
ments of  our  armies  in  nether  Canada.  We  have  not  been 
quite  as  successful  as  could  be  wished,  to  be  sure,  but  our 
Joshua  has  been  as  far  as  the  Jordan  and  looked  upon  the 
land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey.  You  and  I  must  pray 
that  like  old  Joshua,  he  may  not  be  doomed  never  to  eat  it. 
So  far,  so  good.  Another  year  and  things  may  work  better 
still !  Madison  and  his  brethren  have  only  ordered  a 
"  curia  ad  vult ;  "  they  will  make  John  Bull  hop  next  year. 

The  cursed  aUies,  too,  had  the  impudence  not  to  suffer 
the  great  champion  for  the  liberties  of  the  sea  to  advance 
an  inch ;  nay,  it  is  said  they  even  had  the  insolence  to 
chastise  some  of  his  soldiers  who  have  quartered  upon  his 
territory.  Indeed,  some  accounts  in  the  newspapers  go  so 
far  as  to  say  that  several  French  generals  have  actually 
been  taken  by  these  barbarous  allies.  This,  though  merely 
said  in  the  newspapers,  of  course  is  but  a  humbug.  That 
perfect  cannibal  of  an  Englishman,  one  Wellington,  too,  has 
been  so  outrageously  uncivil  as  to  drive  the  French  out  of 
Spain.  When  Bony  catches  him,  what  an  awful  hiding  he 
will  give  this  Wellington  ! 

An  anecdote  is  recorded  of  Chancellor  Kent,  which 
strikingly  illustrates  the  abomination  in  which  he  held 
those  statesmen  who,  in  his  estimation,  had  plunged 
this  country  into  an  unholy  war  with  England.  It 
was  upon  the  occasion  of  the  passage  of  the  Erie 
Canal  Bill,  by  the  New  York  Senate,  in  1817.  Al- 
though the  bill  had  passed  that  body,  it  was  yet  to 
pass  the  ordeal  of  criticism  by  the  Council  of  Revi- 
sion.    Of  this   council   Lieutenant-Governor   Taylor 


MEMOIRS  OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        169 

was  president,  an  earnest  and  formidable  opponent 
of  the  measure.  There  were  present,  besides  Presi- 
dent Taylor  and  the  Chancellor,  Chief-Justice  Smith 
Thompson,  Judge  Jonas  Piatt,  and  Judge  Joseph  C. 
Yates,  afterward  Governor  of  New  York.  The  bill 
was  solemnly  discussed  in  all  its  bearings,  and  its  fate 
hung  trembling  in  the  balance.  Indeed,  it  seemed 
already  lost,  for  the  members  of  the  Council 
present  were  equally  divided  in  opinion  upon  the 
measure.  The  Chief-Justice  held  that  the  bill  gave 
arbitrary  rights  and  powers  to  the  commissioners, 
transcending  private  rights,  without  sufficient  pro- 
visions and  guards.  The  Chancellor,  always  conser- 
vative toward  what  seems  to  him  innovations  upon 
long  established  custom,  felt  that  it  was  a  gigantic 
project  which  was  proposed,  and  one  which  would 
require  the  wealth  of  the  whole  United  States  to  ac- 
complish. He  thought  it  inexpedient  to  commit  the 
State  to  so  great  an  undertaking,  until  public  opinion 
should  be  more  fully  crystallized.  Judges  Piatt  and 
Yates  were  favorable  to  the  bill ;  the  casting  vote  was 
thus  in  the  hands  of  Taylor,  and  he  was  awaiting 
with  the  greatest  eagerness  the  moment  when  he 
might  exercise  it,  to  the  destruction  of  the  measure. 
At  the  critical  moment  Vice-President  Tompkins 
entered  the  Council  Chamber,  and,  seating  himself, 
began  to  discuss  the  bill.  It  was  at  once  evident  that 
he  was  opposed  to  its  final  passage.  "  The  late  peace 
with  Great  Britain,"  he  said,  "  was  a  mere  truce,  and 
the  credit  and  resources  of  the  State  should  be  em- 
ployed, not  in  great  civil  works  like  this,  but  in  pre- 
paring for  war." 


I70       MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

Chancellor  Kent  was  instantly  interested  and  alert. 
"Do  you  think  so?  "  he  demanded,  earnestly. 

"  I  certainly  do,"  was  the  reply.  "  England  never 
forgave  us  our  victories,  and,  my  word  for  it,  we  shall 
have  another  war  within  two  years." 

The  Chancellor  was  instantly  ablaze.  Springing 
to  his  feet  he  exclaimed,  with  the  utmost  vigor  and 
animation,  — 

"  Then  if  we  must  have  a  war,  or  have  a  canal,  I 
am  in  favor  of  the  canal !     I  vote  for  the  bill !  " 

The  die  was  cast.  The  man  who  was  so  earnestly 
desirous  of  defeating  the  bill  had  over-reached  him- 
self and,  by  the  means  designed  to  defeat  it,  had  fur- 
nished the  one  argument  needed  for  its  passage  ;  and 
the  bill  for  the  building  of  the  Erie  Canal  became  a 
law. 

As  has  been  outlined.  Judge  Kent  watched  with 
eager  attention  the  political  convulsions  which  had 
been  devastating  Europe,  and  prostrating  the  nations 
of  the  world  at  the  feet  of  the  French  conqueror. 
The  best  attainable  maps  of  Europe  were  bought  and 
still  form  a  part  of  his  library.  Over  these,  pen  in 
hand,  he  pored  with  close  attention,  tracing  out  the 
march  of  the  armies  and  indicating  the  position  of 
troops  engaged  in  the  great  battles,  with  untiring  in- 
terest and  wonderful  accuracy.  Many  manuscript 
volumes,  still  preserved,  show  the  care  and  attention 
with  which  he  studied  the  scanty  news  of  the  day. 
News  from  Europe  traveled  very  slowly,  —  painfully 
slowly,  it  would  seem  to  us  at  this  time.  The  news 
by  packet  was  never  less  than  sixty  days  and  fre- 
quently many  months  old,  this  delay  being  caused 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        171 

by  the  irregularity  of  the  methods  of  communication. 
Nothing  of  importance  escaped  his  eye,  even  at  a 
time  when  he  was  immersed  in  business  and  striving 
to  plant  his  foot  firmly  upon  the  first  round  of  the 
judicial  ladder. 

As  early  as  September,  1790,  when  he  had  first 
entered  upon  political  life  as  Assembly-man  from 
Dutchess  County,  he  wrote  to  his  brother,  on  the 
receipt  of  an  unusually  interesting  mass  of  European 
intelligence :  — 

James  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

September  23,  1790. 
.  .  .  We  have  been  attentive  here  of  late  to  the  interest- 
ing intelligence  from  Europe.  Events  and  revolutions  pro- 
ceed there  with  such  rapid  succession  that  we  have  hardly 
leisure  to  contemplate  one  before  we  are  called  to  another. 
A  few  years  ago  the  American  world  was  convulsed,  and 
Europe  was  gazing  on  with  anxiety  and  surprise.  The 
scene  is  reversed,  and,  thank  God,  we  are  safely  sheltered 
under  a  fabric  from  whence  we  may  securely  listen  to  the 
storm  at  a  distance.  The  flight  of  the  French  king  you 
have  fully  understood.  What  the  French  will  do  with 
Royalty  is  a  problem  we  have  not  as  yet  the  light  suf- 
ficient to  solve.  The  new  Constitution  of  Poland  is  pub- 
lished, and  exhibits  symmetry  and  wisdom.  I  suppose 
3^ou  have  not  seen  it.  It  is  published  in  the  New  York 
papers  and  in  Fenno.  It  is  an  immense  work,  considering 
the  previous  slavery  and  wretchedness  of  Poland,  and  their 
king  has  the  deserved  reputation  of  a  sage  and  a  patriot. 
Our  last  news  is  of  the  British  mobs,  which  has  not  yet 
reached  you.  A  mob  of  Birmingham  has  made  great  de- 
struction, and  behaved,  as  all  mobs  do,  with  ferocity  and 
cruelty.  .  .  . 


172        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

Two  years  later  he  again  displays  his  deep  interest 
in  the  Polish  situation  and  affairs  in  France. 


Judge  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

October  15,  1792. 
.  .  .  The  total  prostration  of  the  new  Constitution  of 
Poland  by  the  imperious  hand  of  Catherine,  and  the  violent 
breach  in  that  of  the  French  by  their  Jacobin  Clubs  and 
frantic  populace,  are  events  in  the  world  of  European  news 
which  must  excite  alternate  alarm,  sympathy,  and  indigna- 
tion in  the  hearts  of  American  republicans.  The  miserable 
Poles  have  fallen  without  the  least  disgraceful  imputation, 
but  the  French  have  to  answer  to  the  world  and  their  pos- 
terity for  many  a  seditious  debate  and  many  a  sanguinary 
council.  The  Marquis  Fayette  was  ordered  to  be  arrested, 
and  was  taken  by  the  Austrians  in  attempting  to  escape  (as 
it  is  supposed)  to  England  or  America.  Our  politicians 
generally  conclude  the  king  will  be  murdered  now  he  is 
dethroned,  and  that  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  will  make  his 
way  to  Paris;  but  if  he  does  he  must  make  his  way 
through  slaughter  and  desolation.  What  will  become  of 
that  unhappy  people,  it  is  the  province  alone  of  awful 
futurity  to  unfold.  How  much  ought  we  to  prize  and 
cling  fast  to  the  pillars  of  our  free  and  excellent  national 
government  at  home.  These  considerations  make  me  rep- 
robate so  much  Jeffersonian  politics,  and  make  me  also 
averse  to  innovations  on  the  form,  even,  of  our  State  Con- 
stitution to  correct  the  abuses  of  its  administration.  If  we 
have  not  resignation  enough  to  preserve  our  government 
amid  the  present  shocks  of  party,  how  can  our  republics 
uphold  themselves  for  a  series  of  ages? 

Mr.  Kent's  comments  upon  the  conduct  of  affairs 
abroad,  and   especially  upon  Bonaparte's  attempted 


MEMOIRS    OF    CHANCELLOR   KENT        173 

conquest  of  Europe,  are  exceedingly  vivid  and  valu- 
able, as  the  thoughts  of  an  onlooker  in  one  of  the 
great  historic  periods  of  the  world. 

Jitdge  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

September  25,  1793. 

The  President's  proclamation  has  received  the  decided 
sanction  of  the  Union,  and  the  Jacobin  intrigues  of  the 
French  minister  have  been  generally  resented.  But  I  be- 
lieve the  feelings  of  this  country  are,  as  they  ought  to  be, 
strongly  in  favor  of  the  French.  Russia,  Prussia,  Austria, 
Holland,  England,  Spain,  and  Portugal  are  all  in  league 
against  one  single  power,  and  most  of  them  avowedly  be- 
cause France  has  estabHshed  a  popular  government.  So 
powerful  a  league  is  without  example.  The  French  have 
'  made  and  published  their  new  Constitution  ;  its  ratification 
is  referred  to  the  primary  Assemblies,  and  the  loth  of 
August  fixed  for  the  final  decision.  I  have  no  doubt  it  is 
adopted.  It  will  have  a  tendency  to  unite  the  French.  It 
will  be  a  standard  to  rally  around,  and  I  hope  will  dissipate 
their  shameful  factions.  The  Constitution  is  a  departure 
from  what  we  deem  in  this  country  sacred  axioms  of  good 
government.  There  is  no  permanency  in  their  judicial, 
or  unity  in  their  executive,  no  check  or  division  in  their 
legislature.  Be  it  as  it  may,  if  it  unites  them  it  will  be 
most  useful.  Hereafter  they  can  ameliorate  and  correct 
it.  Cond6  in  French  Flanders  has  taken  Valenciennes ;  a 
most  formidable  garrison  still  holds  out,  and  I  conclude 
will  not  be  taken  this  campaign.  .  .  . 

Judge  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

New  York,  August  3,  1795. 
.  .  .  The  news  this  day  circulated  in  the  prints  is  that 
Luxembourg  is  taken  by  the  French  with  10,000  prisoners, 


174        MEMOIRS   OF    CHANCELLOR   KENT 

that  the  Dauphin,  or  son  of  Louis  X\^L  is  dead,  and  that 
the  great  city  of  Copenhagen,  containing,  as  Cox  says,  80,000 
souls,  is  almost  in  ashes  by  means  of  a  dreadful  fire.  Every 
vessel  brings  a  tale  of  woe  from  Europe  and  from  the  West 
Indies.  We  are  happy  if  demagogues  do  not  blind  the  pub- 
lic judgment  and  dupe  the  public  passion  about  Mr.  Jay's 
treaty,  and  throw  us  into  confusion.  It  is  strange  we 
have  no  authentic  account  whether  or  no  the  President  has 
ratified  it. 

Judge  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

September  19,  1796. 
.  .  .  The  foreign  news  is  very  interesting.  The  rapid 
progress  of  the  French  arms,  their  obstinate  battles,  and 
the  terrible  havoc  on  both  sides,  in  the  armies  on  the  Rhine, 
are  enough  to  arouse  the  attention  of  all  mankind.  Europe 
is  now  more  seriously  threatened  with  universal  conquest 
and  domination  than  any  time  before  since  the  date  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  The  French  Repubhc  has  become  a  mili- 
tary one,  and  their  mighty  hordes  of  veteran  and  enthusi- 
astic troops,  under  the  guidance  of  consummate  generals 
and  resolute,  imperious,  and  ambitious  councils,  threaten  to 
lay  prostrate  all  the  nations  around  them.  You  will  see  by 
the  last  paper  the  commanding  attitudes  they  are  in,  and 
their  insults  to  Switzerland,  Tuscany,  Genoa,  and  other 
neutral  nations.  They  seem  determined  to  crush  Great 
Britain  under  the  weight  of  all  Europe.  The  British  Navy 
seems,  however,  to  present  an  insurmountable  barrier  to 
their  ambitious  projects.  God  grant  that  French  armies  and 
British  fleets  may  communicate  so  much  awe  and  modera- 
tion to  each  other  as  to  check  all  undue  pre-eminence  of 
either,  and  save  other  nations  from  the  exactions  and  inso- 
lence of  both. 


MEMOIRS   OF    CHANCELLOR   KENT        175 

Judge  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

PouGHKEEPSiE,  May  II,  1799. 
You  may  prepare  yourself  to  be  amused  (if  scenes  of 
devastation  and  revolution  can  indeed  amuse),  during  the 
summer,  with  hard-fought  battles  and  rapid  conquests  in 
Germany ;  for  I  perceive  the  French  have  begun  an  active 
campaign,  and  I  fear  they  will  revolutionize,  which  is  the 
same  thing  as  prostrating,  Austria,  Turkey,  Spain,  and  Por- 
tugal, before  they  terminate  the  campaign.  I  forebode 
dreadful  ill  to  Europe,  and  dreadful  successes  to  the  bar- 
barians of  France. 

Judge  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

July  16,  1799. 
We  seem  this  day  to  have  pretty  authentic  news  that 
the  Brest  fleet  has  joined  the  Spanish,  and  gone  into  the 
Mediterranean,  and  surely  fierce  Bellona  will  crimson  the 
sea  with  rivers  of  human  blood.  Earl  St.  Vincent  has 
passed  Gibraltar  after  them.  Nelson  is  there  already,  Lord 
Bridport  will  soon  follow ;  and  here  will  be  far  above  1 00 
sail  of  the  line,  the  Russian  and  Turkish  squadrons  included, 
the  proudest  fleet  that  inland  sea  ever  bore,  even  if  we  revert 
back  to  the  squadrons  at  Lepanto,  at  Actium,  at  Salamis,  or 
at  any  other  memorable  epoch  in  Greek  or  Roman  story. 

Some  years  later,  in  writing  to  his  wife,  he  says  :  — 

April  26,  1S04. 
There  is  no  decided  news  from  Europe.  Private  letters 
from  high  and  well  informed  characters  assert  that  Bona- 
parte was  certainly  serious  in  invasion,  because  his  prepara- 
tions have  been  immense  and  beyond  all  precedent  and 
calculation.  On  the  other  hand,  the  means  of  resistance 
by  Great  Britain  have  multiplied  equally,  and  their  fleets 


176        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

have  rode  out  the  winter  storms,  and  kept  up  a  strict 
blockade  of  the  French  coast  during  all  the  rigors  of  the 
season.  It  is  beheved  that  Bonaparte  must  see  the  success 
of  the  invasion  impracticable,  and  it  is  concluded  he  will 
attempt  it  soon,  or  he  will  (which  is  more  probable)  dis- 
charge his  mighty  forces  like  a  torrent  on  the  North  of 
Europe,  and  carry  conquest  and  desolation  over  Denmark, 
Sweden,  and  Prussia.  No  doubt  some  event  of  mighty 
impression  and  awful  results  is  impending.  However,  we 
shall  be  safe,  and  I  regard  Albany  as  desirable  a  retreat  as 
any  part  of  the  world. 

As  the  time  approached  for  the  termination  of  the 
"  age  of  battle,"  he  wrote  to  his  brother,  in  October, 
1 807 :  — 

.  .  .  The  present  unsettled  state  of  our  concerns  abroad 
must  undoubtedly  render  every  kind  of  investment  a  little 
precarious.  But  we  must  take  our  chances  with  the  rest  of 
the  world.  The  state  of  Europe  is  awful,  both  as  it  re- 
spects the  degraded  and  debased  condition  of  the  countries 
under  the  despotism  of  France,  and  as  it  respects  the  safety 
and  existence  of  the  only  independent  power  left.  I  think 
more  of  European  operations  than  of  Burr's  trial  and  such 
stuff  at  home.  If  it  be  really  true  that  the  grand  English 
fleet  and  army  are  to  take  the  Island  of  Zealand  and  the 
Danish  fleet,  there  will  be  a  stupendous  series  of  events 
very  shortly  for  our  amusement. 

Six  years  later,  to  his  brother  at  Washington  he 
writes :  — 

Judge  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

July  14,  1S13. 
The  details  of  the  bloody  battle  near  Leipsig,  on  the  2d 
May,  have  just  been  received,  and  I  am  not  without  much 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        177 

anxiety  for  the  campaign  in  Germany ;  but  I  feel  confident 
for  the  ultimate  success  of  the  struggle  for  national  inde- 
pendence carried  on  by  Russia,  Prussia,  Spain,  and  England. 

A  few  months  later,  his  interest  in  European  affairs 
being  still  maintained,  he  again  writes :  — 

Chancellor  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

Albany,  March  31,  1814. 

.  .  .  The  astonishing  events  in  France  excite  all  my 
attention.  I  think  of  them  when  I  rise  and  I  think  of 
them  when  I  lie  down.  I  am  afraid  the  AUies  will  make 
peace  without  prostrating  the  dynasty  of  the  Scourge  and 
Nuisance  of  Europe.  I  shall  not  be  satisfied  until  Napo- 
leon is  dead  and  buried,  or  at  least  immured  for  life  in  the 
castle  of  Schliisselburg. 

And  later  he  sounds  a  joyful  note  of  relief  upon  the 
fall  of  Napoleon,  whose  career  had  been  to  him  so 
long  an  object  of  eager  interest,  and  fraught  with  such 
serious  consequences  to  Europe. 

Chancellor  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

January,  1816. 
...  I  believe  that  the  mode  of  administering  the  [our] 
government  is  rotten  to  the  core.  But  Bonaparte  is  a  pris- 
oner and  the  French  Empire  prostrate,  and  the  terrors  of 
Walsh's  and  the  distresses  of  Burke's  pen  are  dissipated ; 
and  that  is  a  great  panacea  for  a  thousand  ills. 

In  August,  1 82 1,  a  State  convention  was  called  for 
the  purpose  of  framing  a  new  constitution  for  New 
York.  Of  this  body  Chancellor  Kent  was  a  member, 
and  he  may  be  fairly  said  to  have  represented  the  op- 


178        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

position  in  the  convention.  His  efforts  were  ably 
seconded  by  his  Hfe-long  friends,  Ambrose  Spencer, 
Stephen  Van  Rensselaer,  Abraham  Van  Vechten,  Wil- 
liam W.  Van  Ness,  Jonas  Piatt,  and  a  few  others,  who 
represented  the  crumbling  remains  of  the  Federal 
party.  The  thoughts,  habits,  and  political  affiliations 
of  a  lifetime  were  centered  in  this  final  effort  to  stem 
the  tide  of  Democratic  innovation,  which,  rising  more 
and  more,  seemed  to  threaten  to  overwhelm  the  entire 
system  of  jurisprudence  in  all  its  departments,  and  to 
sweep  away  those  institutions  which,  derived  from 
ancient  Anglo-Saxon  source,  were  closely  interwoven 
in  the  fabric  of  the  government,  its  customs,  and  its 
laws. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that,  actuated  by  these 
views,  Chancellor  Kent  should  have  manfully  battled 
for  the  remains  of  those  institutions,  their  perquisites, 
emoluments,  and  dignities,  rather  than  by  submitting 
to  the  outward  form  of  change  in  an  organization 
which  undoubtedly  required  reorganization,  follow  the 
tide  of  public  opinion  in  the  establishment  of  new 
forms  and  methods  of  government,  legislative  and 
judicial. 

Mr.  Kent's  life  had  been  spent  in  combating  the 
growing  desire  for  change,  and  inculcating  into  the 
jurisprudence  of  his  State  the  grand  principles  of 
law  upon  the  sound  basis  of  strict  scientific  deduc- 
tion derived  from  the  English  authorities.  His  labors 
had  borne  fruit,  had  systematized,  enlarged,  enriched, 
and  established  the  entire  fabric  of  jurisprudence,  but 
could  not  hold  together  the  system,  of  which  he  was 
the  head,  upon  the  lines  laid  down  by  the  old  Consti- 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        179 

tution.  The  State  had  outgrown  the  methods  which 
existed  under  that  Constitution,  but  it  is  doubtful  if 
the  innovations  suggested  were  of  such  a  character  as 
to  be  much  of  an  improvement  upon  the  existing 
methods. 

The  constitution  of  the  various  committees  was 
markedly  indicative  of  the  drift  of  public  opinion ; 
with  the  exception  of  Mr.  Tallmadge,  a  doubtful 
Clintonian,  all  the  chairmen  were  Republicans,  —  then 
the  name  of  the  present  Democratic  party,  —  and 
the  entire  convention  was  in  the  hands  of  that  party, 
which  had  declared  itself  in  favor  of  change  and 
innovation.  As  might  have  been  expected,  the  re- 
ports of  the  various  committees  were  in  favor  of  the 
new  order,  and  the  chief  points  may  briefly  be  stated 
as  follows :  — 

The  Committee  on  the  Council  of  Revision  reported 
in  favor  of  abolishing  that  Council  and  vesting  the 
veto  power  in  the  Governor.  This  report  was  adopted 
after  much  discussion  upon  many  amendments. 

The  Committee  of  the  Executive  Department  re- 
ported upon  the  advisability  of  reducing  the  term  of 
the  Governor  to  two  years.  Upon  this  point  Chancel- 
lor Kent  and  the  other  members  of  the  ultra  Federal 
party  took  strong  grounds  against  the  ultra  Demo- 
crats, who  advocated  a  one-year  term;  and  after  a 
prolonged  discussion  and  considerable  voting  taken 
on  amendments,  the  recommendation  of  the  com- 
mittee was  adopted,  the  Federalists  voting  with  the 
moderate  Democrats. 

The  recommendation  of  the  Committee  on  Suffrage, 
abolishing  a  property  qualification  and  extending  the 


I  So       ^lEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

suffrage  to  all  white  citizens  over  the  age  of  twenty- 
one,  was  one  of  the  prime  questions  of  the  hour; 
against  its  adoption  the  Chancellor  and  the  entire 
Federal  party  vainly  strove,  endeavoring  to  retain 
a  property  qualification,  and  at  the  same  time  ex- 
clude the  negro  from  the  right  of  suffrage. 

In  the  efforts  of  the  Democrats  to  reconstruct  the 
Judiciary,  the  Chancellor  d.nd  his  associates  took  no 
very  active  part,  further  than  to  express  their  opinion 
upon  the  advisability  of  the  measures,  and,  throughout 
the  discussion,  he  and  the  remainder  of  the  Judges 
held  a  position  of  dignified  reserve  in  regard  to  the 
final  disposition  of  their  official  positions.  The  of- 
ficial character  of  Chancellor  Kent  and  Judge  Spencer, 
and  the  conduct  of  the  courts  under  their  manage- 
ment were  fully  vindicated  and  extolled,  even  by  the 
opposition  members  of  the  convention,  who  were  op- 
posed to  the  overturning  of  the  Courts  of  Chancery 
and  the  Supreme  Court;  and  this  position  was  main- 
tained by  Governor  Tompkins  and  Messrs.  Van  Buren, 
Paulding,  Wheaton,  King,  and  others  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party. 

l^lThe  term  of  office  of  Mr.  Kent,  as  Chancellor,  was 
drawing  to  a  close.  He  had  fought,  during  his  whole 
career,  against  change  and  innovation,  —  for  the  rights 
of  the  individual  as  distinguished  from  the  rights  of 
the  people,  upon  what  he  considered  the  true  princi- 
ples of  individual  and  constitutional  liberty ;  but 
although  he  had  done,  within  his  sphere  of  duties,  all 
that  one  man  could  do,  it  required  more  than  the 
enunciation  of  principles,  no  matter  how  deeply  rooted, 
to  create  respect  for  established  usage,  j 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        i8i 

His  last  appearance  before  the  public,  and  the  final 
overthrow  of  these  usages  which  he  considered  so 
essential  to  the  welfare  of  the  government,  was  a  bit- 
ter disappointment  to  him  as  a  man,  but  it  eventually 
proved  itself  to  be  that  crowning  mark  of  discipline 
which  Providence  seems  to  have  thought  fit  to  bestow 
upon  this  singularly  gifted  man.  It  deeply  impressed 
upon  him  the  lesson  that  principle  lies  deeper  than 
form,  that  established  usage  should  not  be  venerated 
for  that  cause  alone,  and  that  change  of  form,  no 
matter  how  radical,  cannot  shake  the  fundamental 
principles  of  law  and  justice. 

By  embittering  the  final  days  of  his  office  as  Chan- 
cellor, and  throwing  him  out  upon  the  world,  after 
treating  him  with  contempt  by  first  reducing  an  al- 
ready exceedingly  small  salary,  and  creating  no  fund 
from  which  a  pension  might  have  been  given  to  a  man 
who  had  passed  his  entire  life  in  the  performance  of 
such  distinguished  service  to  his  country,  the  Legis- 
lature of  his  State  not  only  emphasized  the  habitual 
ingratitude  of  republican  assemblies  and  the  spleen 
of  party  rancor,  but  they  unwittingly  did  a  service  to 
their  country  at  large,  the  result  of  which  has  proved 
to  have  been  of  inestimable  benefit  to  the  whole  of 
these  United  States. 

That  the  attitude  of  Chancellor  Kent  in  the  con- 
vention was  approved  by  his  friends  of  years,  although 
he  was  overwhelmed  by  the  popular  tide,  is  shown 
by  a  letter  from  Hon.  Jonas  Piatt :  — 


i82        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 
Jonas  Piatt  to  Chancellor  Kent. 

October  29,  1821. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  thank  you  cordially  for  your  kindness  in 
keeping  us  well  advised  from  day  to  day  of  the  proceedings 
of  the  convention.  Although  this  daily  repast  did  not 
always  gratify  the  taste  of  us  "judicial  delegates,"  yet  I 
assure  you,  we  felt  very  grateful  to  the  cook,  who,  with  all 
his  skill,  could  not  give  a  good  rehsh  from  such  materials. 
Pardon  this  low-lived  metaphor,  which  illy  comports  with 
the  dignity  of  a  Lord  Chancellor. 

I  now  tender  you  my  thanks  for  something  worthy  of 
yourself.  I  mean,  for  the  able,  patriotic,  and  dignified 
stand  which  you  have  maintained  in  resisting  the  torrent 
from  the  volcano.  I  rejoice  on  your  own  account  as  well 
as  for  the  honor  of  the  State,  that  you  have  been  stationed 
in  the  straits  of  Thermopylae.  You  have  erected  there  a 
noble  monument,  my  dear  friend ;  and  even  our  ungrateful 
republic  will  one  day  do  justice  to  your  merits  and  charac- 
ter. You  have  never  before  been  exposed  to  the  buffeting 
of  Jacobin  factions.  "  Gaudet  tentamine  virtus."  "  Indig- 
nante  invidia  florebat  Justus."     "  Post  nubilis,  Phoebus." 

During  the  period  embraced  by  the  term  of  Mr. 
Kent's  office  as  Chancellor,  from  18 14  to  1823,  are 
found  but  few  letters  or  memoranda  from  which  to 
quote.  His  brother  Moss,  who  up  to  this  time  had  . 
been  his  life-long  correspondent,  and  to  whose  interest 
and  care  is  due  the  preservation  of  many  of  the 
letters  which  have  formed  the  material  of  this  mpmoir, 
was  now  a  resident  of  Albany,  and  the  register  of  the 
Court  of  Chancery.  Except  for  a  few  letters  to 
William  Johnson,  the  Reporter,  the  history  of  that 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        183 

period  is  to  be  found  only  in  Johnson's  Chancery- 
Reports,  in  themselves  a  lasting  monument  to  the 
Chancellor's  tireless  industry  and  vast  legal  erudition. 

As  the  Chancellor  progressed  in  life,  and  as  he 
neared  the  close  of  his  official  career,  he  became  more 
and  more  absorbed  in  his  duties.  When  hearing  an 
argument,  he  became  completely  wrapped  up  in  the 
discussion,  listened  with  close  attention,  took  few 
notes  and  those  usually  only  on  the  facts,  and  if  the 
discussion  was  of  more  than  usual  interest,  kept  up  a 
running  commentary  upon  the  points  of  the  argument, 
at  times  to  the  confusion  of  the  counsel  addressing 
him.  All  attempts  at  sophistry  or  of  distortion  of 
facts  were  quickly  detected  and  rapidly  rebuked  with 
a  quick,  impatient  "  Your  facts  do  not  bear  out 
your  contention,  sir,"  or  "Pooh!  pooh!  that's  no 
law,"  as  marks  of  disapproval,  or  "  Yes,  that 's  good 
law,"  or  "  That  point  is  well  taken,"  as  the  argument 
met  with  his  approval. 

His  manner  to  the  inexperienced  practitioner  was 
kind  and  gentle,  and  every  member  of  the  Bar  who 
came  before  him,  no  matter  who  he  might  be,  was 
sure  of  careful  and  courteous  attention.  Simple  and 
direct  in  his  methods,  he  very  much  disliked  anything 
which  savored  of  discourtesy,  or  sharp  practice,  be- 
tween the  members  of  the  Bar  who  practiced  in  his 
court,  and  was  particularly  opposed  to  that  class  of 
practice  which  has  grown  up  since  the  introduction 
of  the  Code,  whereby  the  sharp  practitioner  may 
harass  and  annoy  his  less  wary  opponent  and  obtain 
costs  upon  trivial  motions.  Such  actions  when  taken 
before    him   were  invariably  defeated,    and  in   many 


1 84        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

instances  the  mover  was  only  too  glad  to  retire, 
precipitately  if  not  gracefully. 

One  instance  of  the  tact  with  which  he  at  times 
met  and  disposed  of  such  questions  has  been  noted 
by  an  eye-witness.  When  sitting  as  Chancellor,  a 
very  important  case  was  argued  before  him,  in 
which  many  eminent  counsel  were  engaged,  and 
among  them  one  of  the  most  famous  of  New  Jersey's 
chancery  lawyers.  As  he  arose  to  address  the  court, 
an  objection  was  made  by  one  of  the  lesser  lights 
among  his  opponents,  that  the  gentleman  from  New 
Jersey,  not  having  been  admitted  to  practice  in  the 
Chancery  Courtof  New  York  State,  could  not  with  pro- 
priety be  heard.  The  Chancellor  was  manifestly  very 
much  annoyed  at  this  breach  of  professional  courtesy, 
even  if,  technically,  the  objection  was  good,  and  in  pass- 
ing upon  the  point  said  :  "  I  admit  the  point,  although  I 
do  not  think  that  at  this  stage  of  the  proceedings  it 
should  be  raised.  Although  the  learned  counsel  has 
not  been  admitted  to  this  court,  I  am  not  informed  of 
any  valid  reason  why  he  should  not  be;  and,  further, 
as  it  is  customary  to  inquire  into  the  qualifications  of 
all  candidates  for  admission  to  practice,  if  my  learned 
brother  is  willing,  I  will  proceed  with  his  examination 
at  once ;  and  I  appoint  the  mover  of  this  motion  a 
committee  to  make  the  requisite  examination  before 
me  now,  before  we  proceed  with  the  argument." 

It  is  needless  to  add  that  the  junior  counselor  was 
quite  unprepared  to  make  an  exhibition  of  his  legal 
attainments  before  the  Chancellor  and  such  a  dis- 
tinguished gathering  of  the  Bar,  and  was  only  too 
glad  to  withdraw  his  motion  and  substitute  one  for 


MEMOIRS   OF    CHANCELLOR   KENT.      185 

the  admission  of  the  New  Jersey  lawyer,  which  was 
immediately  granted,  and  the  case  proceeded  without 
further  delay. 

It  is  related  that  upon  another  occasion  a  cer- 
tain counselor,  much  given  to  lengthy  statement 
and  argument  upon  trivial  points,  excepted  to  an 
item  in  a  Master's  report.  After  making  his  point  he 
was  proceeding  to  elaborate  it  at  considerable  length. 
The  Chancellor  became  impatient  and  soon  interrupted 
the  lawyer  with  the  query,  — 

"  Mr.  Riggs,  what  is  the  amount  of  the  item  in 
dispute?  " 

"  One  dollar  and  seventy-five  cents,  your  honor," 
was  the  reply. 

"  I  won't  hear  it !  I  won't  hear  it !  "  exclaimed  the 
Chancellor,  with  energy.  "  I  would  rather  pay  it 
myself." 

Toward  the  close  of  his  term  as  Chancellor,  the 
friction  between  the  various  branches  of  the  judiciary 
became  pronounced,  and  the  Court  of  Errors  was  by 
some  believed  to  be  somewhat  swayed  by  political 
considerations  in  reviewing  the  opinions  of  the  Chan- 
cellor. How  far  this  may  have  been  true  it  is  not 
necessary  to  inquire,  but  it  is  evident  that  Chancellor 
Kent  was  deeply  wounded,  for,  in  April,  1820,  he 
wrote  to  William  Johnson :  — 

I  return  you  my  thanks  for  the  three  volumes  of  the  canon 
law.  I  have  cursorily  turned  them  over,  and  I  think  their 
very  curious  learning  relates  more  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  priest  than  of  the  Protestant  civilian.  But 
I  have  no  doubt  I  might  find  them  occasionally  useful,  if  I 
had  any  courage  left  to   pursue   Curious   and  erudite  re- 


1 86        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

searches.  But,  to  tell  you  the  truth,  I  am  discouraged  and 
heart-broken.  The  judges  have  prevailed  on  the  Court  of 
Errors  to  reverse  all  my  best  decisions.  I'hey  have  reversed 
Frost  V.  Beekman,  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  v. 
Jacques,  Anderson  v.  Boyd,  and  others.  After  such  devas- 
tation, what  courage  ought  I  to  have  to  study  and  write 
elaborate  opinions?  There  are  but  two  sides  to  every 
case,  and  I  am  so  unfortunate  as  always  to  take  the  wrong 
side.  1  never  felt  more  disgusted  with  the  judges  in  all 
my  life,  and  I  expressed  myself  to  Judge  Piatt  in  a  way  to 
mortify  and  offend  him.  According  to  my  present  feelings 
and  sentiments,  I  will  never  consent  to  publish  another 
opinion,  and  I  have  taken  and  removed  out  of  sight  and  out 
of  my  office  into  another  room  my  three  volumes  of 
Chancery  Reports.  They  were  too  fearful  when  standing 
before  my  eyes. 

"In  1823,"  wrote  Chancellor  Kent,  in  continuing 
his  epistle  to  Thomas  Washington,^  "  a  solemn  era  in 
my  life  had  arrived.  I  retired  from  the  office  at  the 
age  of  sixty,  and  then  immediately,  with  my  son,  visited 
the  Eastern  States.  On  my  return  the  solitude  of  my 
private  office  and  the  new  dynasty  did  not  please  me. 
I,  besides,  would  want  income  to  live  as  I  had  been 
accustomed.  My  eldest  daughter^  was  prosperously 
settled  in  New  York,  and  I  resolved  to  move  away 
from  Albany,  and  ventured  to  come  down  to  New 
York  and  be  chamber  counsel.  The  trustees  of 
Columbia  College  immediately  tendered  me  again 
my  old  office  of  Professor,  which  had  lain  dormant 
from  1795.     I  undertook  (but  exceedingly  against  my 

1  Supra,  p.  157. 

'■'■  Then  Mrs.  Isaac  S.  Hone. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        187 

inclination)  to  write  and  deliver  law  lectures.  In  the 
two  characters  of  chamber  counsel  and  college  lec- 
turer, I  succeeded,  by  steady  perseverance,  beyond 
my  most  sanguine  expectations,  and  upon  the  whole, 
the  five  years  I  have  lived  here  in  this  city  since  1823 
have  been  happy  and  prosperous.  I  have  introduced 
my  son  into  good  business,  and  I  live  near  my 
daughter,  and  I  take  excursions  every  summer  with 
my  wife  and  daughters  all  over  the  country.  I  have 
been  twice  with  her  to  Canada,  and  we  go  in  every 
direction.  I  never  had  better  health.  I  walk  the 
Battery  uniformly  before  breakfast.  I  give  a  great 
many  written  opinions,  and  having  got  heartily  tired 
of  lecturing  I  abandoned  it,  and  it  was  my  son  who 
pressed  me  to  prepare  a  volume  of  the  lectures  for 
the  press.  I  had  no  idea  of  pubHshing  them  when  I 
delivered  them.  I  wrote  anew  one  volume  and  pub- 
Hshed  it,  as  you  know.  This  led  me  to  remodel  and 
enlarge,  and  now  the  third  volume  will  be  out  in  a  few 
days,  and  I  am  obliged  to  write  a  fourth  to  complete 
my  plan. 

"  My  reading  now  is,  as  you  may  well  suppose, 
quite  desultory,  but  still  I  read  with  as  much  zeal  and 
pleasure  as  ever.  I  was  never  more  engaged  in  my 
life  than  during  the  last  summer.  I  accepted  the 
trust  of  receiver  to  the  Franklin  (insolvent)  Bank, 
and  it  has  occupied  and  perplexed  and  vexed  me 
daily ;  and  I  had  to  write  part  of  the  third  volume 
and  search  books  a  good  deal  for  that  very  object, 
and  I  have  revised  the  proof  sheets. 

"  On  reviewing  what  I  have  written,  I  had  thoughts 
of  burning  it.     I  speak  of  myself  so  entirely,  and  it  is 


1 88        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

entirely  against  my  habit  or  taste,  but  I  see  no  other 
way  fairly  to  meet  your  desires." 

On  the  reverse  of  his  copy  of  the  letter,  which  has 
been  so  freely  quoted,  and  which  has  served  to  reveal 
so  much  of  the  Chancellor's  inner  life  and  character,  is 
found  this  minute,  in  his  own  neat  handwriting :  — 

The  within  is  the  copy  of  a  letter  I  wrote  to  a  gentleman 
at  the  South  in  1828.     It  was  fairly  pressed  out  of  me. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        189 


VIII 

ON  the  31st  day  of  July,  1823,  Chancellor  Kent 
reached  the  age  of  sixty  years,  and  the  period 
of  retirement  from  official  position.  The  Constitu- 
tional Convention,  in  which  he  himself  had  borne  a 
part  in  1821,  had  fixed  this  age  limit  to  the  Chan- 
cellor's term  of  office.  It  is  to  the  advantage  of 
posterity  that  he  was  thus  forced  from  public  life. 
The  sixty  years  which  he  had  lived  were  but  prepara- 
tory to  the  great  work  that  rendered  his  name  im- 
mortal. "  As  a  judge  and  as  Chancellor,  he  had  done 
enough  for  his  own  fame  and  for  the  interests  and 
honor  of  his  own  State.  It  was  to  the  whole  Union 
that  his  services  were  now  due,  and  were  soon  to  be 
rendered."  ^ 

On  his  retirement  from  official  life,  addresses  were 
presented  to  him  by  the  Bar  of  the  city  of  New  York, 
of  Albany,  and  of  the  entire  State,  expressive  of  their 
veneration,  regard,  and  gratitude  toward  him,  and 
their  sense  of  the  value  of  his  judicial  labors  during 
the  twenty-five  years  in  which  he  had  occupied  seats 
upon  the  Bench.  Although  during  this  period  he 
had  earned  a  comfortable  support  for  himself  and  his 
family,  he  had  not  acquired  sufficient  property  to 
enable  him  to  live  wholly  at  his  ease.  The  home  in 
1  Duer. 


I90       MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

the  country,  where  he  might  enjoy  ele'gant  leisure  for 
study  and  Hterary  pursuits,  was  still  a  dream  of  the 
future.  He  must  still  work,  and,  that  he  might  do  so 
to  the  best  advantage,  he  again  removed,  with  his 
family,  —  now  consisting  of  his  wife,  a  son,  and  two 
daughters,  —  to  the  city  of  New  York.  Here  he 
established  an  office  for  chamber  practice,  and  almost 
immediately  he  was  re-elected  to  his  former  chair  of 
law  in  Columbia  College,  which  had  remained  unoc- 
cupied during  all  the  years  since  his  resignation. 

At  a  dinner  given  in  his  honor,  in  1889,  by  the  New 
York  Bar,  on  the  sixtieth  anniversary  of  his  admission, 
Mr.  Benjamin  D.  Silliman,  in  speaking  of  old  New 
York  lawyers,  thus  recalled  Chancellor  Kent  in  whose 
office  he  had  been  a  student  at  law:  — 

When  he  left  the  Bench  (and  indeed  to  the  end  of  his 
life)  he  was  in  the  fullness  of  mental  vigor  and  strength  and 
wisdom,  and  of  the  goodness  and  gladness  of  his  guileless 
heart.  His  serene  cheerfulness  and  kindness  dehghted  all 
who  had  intercourse  with  him.  He  was  "  in  wit  a  man,  in 
simplicity  a  child."  His  personal  qualities  secured  to  him 
the  love,  as  his  learning,  dignity,  and  purity  did  the  rever- 
ence, of  all.  I  have  never  known  any  other  man  whose 
reading  and  study  were  so  universal  as  his.  It  could  not  be 
said  of  him,  as  it  was  said  of  a  distinguished  English  lawyer, 
that  "  he  knew  a  little  about  everything,  and  not  much  about 
anything,"  for  the  Chancellor  knew  all  about  everything  he 
had  ever  studied,  and  he  had  studied  almost  everything. 
In  connection  with  his  universal  reading  was  his  absolutely 
phenomenal  memory.  He  literally  forgot  nothing.  A  mind 
so  stored,  and  with  its  treasures  so  secured,  could  know  no 
solitude.  It  found  within  itself  abundant  and  choice  com- 
panionship. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        191 

He  began  the  work  of  preparing  his  law  lectures 
with  great  zeal,  but  he  was  much  in  demand  as  a  diner- 
out,  and  these  social  demands  —  which  he  seems  to 
have  endured,  rather  than  to  have  courted  —  were  a 
serious  interference  with  his  work.  In  January,  1824, 
he  wrote  to  his  brother :  — 

Chancellor  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

January  4,  1824. 

I  am  involved  in  a  great  deal  of  company,  and  we  have 
been  overwhelmed  with  calls  and  visits.  In  spite  of  what 
I  can  do  I  am  obliged  to  dine  out  a  good  deal.  I  have 
for  two  or  three  weeks  engaged  with  great  zeal  in  preparing 
law  lectures.  I  have  written  out  several,  and  mean  to  make 
a  beginning  the  first  of  Februarj'.  I  am  in  hopes  of  being 
able  to  give  a  broken  and  imperfect  course,  and  make  a 
good  experiment.  I  shall  do  all  I  can  to  deserve  success. 
I  walk  a  good  deal  morning  and  evening,  and  live  pretty 
well,  though  not  without  occasional  gloom  and  anxiety.  I 
sigh  for  a  plainer,  simpler  society  than  the  one  I  am  in,  but  I 
don't  know  that  I  should  be  better  contented  anywhere  else. 

If  I  can  indemnify  myself  by  my  business  and  lectures,  it  is 
all  I  want.  I  choose  not  to  impair  my  little  capital,  and  I 
trust  I  shall  not.  If  in  eighteen  months  I  find  it  to  be  other- 
wise, I  shall  then  retire  to  some  quiet  and  cheap  country 
place,  but  spero  meUo7'i. 

A  few  days  later  he  again  writes :  — 

Chancellor  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

January  16,  1824. 
We  are  in  a  whirlwind  of  company  and  are  oppressed 
with  calls  and  invitations.     I  dine  out  half  my  time  and  it 
distresses  me  very  much,  as  it  is  such  a  great  impediment 


192        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

to  my  studies  and  the  preparation  of  my  law  lectures.  But 
I  keep  my  health  well  and  take  a  great  deal  of  exercise. 
Monday  I  dined  with  Mr.  Davis  (who  is  in  town  from  Boston) , 
with  my  son-in-law  on  Tuesday,  and  that  evening  Uncle  Phil 
[Philip  Hone]  had  a  splendid  party  and  dance  and  music, 
and  I  was  obliged  to  go.  To-night  I  must  go  to  the  Post- 
ofifice,  where  an  entertainment  is  getting  up.  I  dined  yes- 
terday with  Mr.  Bayard,  to-day  I  dine  with  Colonel  Varick, 
and  to-morrow  with  Governor  Lewis,  and  so  I  go  on. 

I  have  got  eight  or  ten  lectures  written  out  and  mean  to 
begin  the  first  of  February,  and  shall  probably  deliver  but 
two  formal  lectures  a  week,  with  one  more  private  for  the 
matriculated  students  only.  By  this  means  I  can  keep  up 
two  lectures  a  week  until  June,  and  that  shall  be  the  extent 
of  my  first  imperfect  and  broken  course.  It  is  an  experi- 
ment, and  I  shall  do  my  best  to  make  it  successful.  .  .  . 

By  the  coming  of  autumn  of  this  year,  the  Chan- 
cellor was  in  the  full  tide  of  delivery  of  his  law  lec- 
tures, but  it  may  be  that  the  memory  of  the  failure  of 
the  plan,  years  before,  had  produced  in  him  a  feeling 
of  pessimism,  for,  in  November,  1824,  he  again  writes 
to  his  brother :  — 

Chancellor  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

November  9,  1S24. 

I  have  commenced  my  lectures  and  they  give  me  a  good 
deal  of  trouble  and  anxiety.  I  am  compelled  to  study  and 
write  all  the  time,  as  if  I  was  under  the  whip  and  spur. 
But  I  take  early  and  regular  and  habitual  exercise,_ahd  am 
very  temperate,  and  on  the  whole  am  very  healthy.  I  have 
no  reason  to  complain,  but  on  the  contrary  have  the  most 
persuasive  motives  of  gratitude  to  God  for  his  continuous 
goodness. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        193 

It  was  on  the  completion  of  this  series  of  law  lec- 
tures, in  the  spring  of  1826,  that  the  idea  was  first 
suggested  to  him  of  allowing  them  to  appear  in 
printed  form.  This  course  was  strongly  urged  by  his 
son,  Judge  William  Kent,  who  clearly  appreciated  the 
great  value  which  such  a  work  would  have,  if  his 
father  could  be  induced  to  present  to  the  public  the 
vast  store  of  historical  and  legal  learning  that  he  had 
accumulated  in  his  professional  career.  It  was,  there- 
fore, at  the  age  of  sixty-three  that  Chancellor  Kent 
set  himself  the  task  of  reducing  to  writing  the  vol- 
uminous mass  of  the  Common  Law  of  his  country, 
which  he  had  been  so  diligent  in  expounding 
throughout  his  official  career.  Using  his  lectures 
as  a  basis,  he  amplified  them  somewhat  and  began 
their  publication  under  his  own  supervision,  and  at 
his  own  expense. 

The  cost  of  bringing  out  this  first  volume  in  sheets, 
he  notes  to  have  been  $1076.27,  which  was  a  very 
considerable  venture  considering  his  limited  means, — 
and  it  is  extremely  doubtful  if  he  would  have  con- 
tinued the  publication  of  the  remaining  volumes,  if 
the  first  had  not  met  with  a  warm  reception. 

"  Having  retired  from  public  office  in  the  summer 
of  1823,"  he  wrote  in  the  preface  to  the  first  volume, 
"  I  had  the  honor  to  receive  the  appointment  of  Pro- 
fessor of  Law  in  Columbia  College.  The  trustees  of 
that  institution  have  repeatedly  given  me  the  most 
liberal  and  encouraging  proofs  of  their  respect  and 
confidence,  of  which  I  shall  ever  retain  a  grateful 
recollection.  A  similar  appointment  was  received 
from  them  in  the  year  1793  ;  and  this  renewed  mark 

13 


194        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

of  their  approbation  determined  me  to  employ  the 
entire  leisure  in  which  I  found  myself  in  further  en- 
deavors to  discharge  the  debt  which,  according  to 
Lord  Bacon,  every  man  owes  to  his  profession.  I 
was  strongly  induced  to  accept  the  trust  from  want 
of  occupation ;  being  apprehensive  that  the  sudden 
cessation  of  my  habitual  employment,  and  the  con- 
trast between  the  discussions  of  the  forum  and  the 
solitude  of  retirement  might  be  unpropitious  to  my 
health  and  spirits,  and  cast  a  premature  shade  over 
the  happiness  of  decHning  years. 

"The  following  Lectures  are  the  fruit  of  the  accept- 
ance of  that  trust;  and,  in  the  performance  of  my 
collegiate  duty,  I  had  the  satisfaction  to  meet  a  col- 
lection of  interesting  young  gentlemen,  of  fine  talents 
and  pure  character,  who  placed  themselves  under  my 
instruction,  and  in  whose  future  welfare  a  deep  inter- 
est is  felt.  Having  been  encouraged  to  suppose  that 
the  publication  of  the  Lectures  might  render  them 
more  extensively  useful,  I  have  been  induced  to  sub- 
mit the  present  volume  to  the  notice  of  students,  and 
of  the  junior  members  of  the  profession,  for  whose  use 
they  were  originally  compiled.  Another  volume  is 
wanting  to  embrace  all  the  material  parts  of  the  Lec- 
tures which  have  been  composed.  It  will  treat,  at 
large,  and  in  an  elementary  manner,  of  the  law  of 
property  and  of  personal  rights  and  commercial  con- 
tracts ;  and  will  be  prepared  for  the  press  in  the 
course  of  the  ensuing  year,  unless  in  the  mean  time 
there  should  be  reason  to  apprehend  that  another 
volume  would  be  trespassing  too  far  upon  the  patience 
and  indulgence  of  the  public." 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        195 

The  sale  of  the  book,  however,  exceeded  his  high- 
est expectation,  and  he  was  encouraged  to  continue 
the  work.  From  this  time  forward  all  his  spare  time 
was  occupied  in  correcting  proof  and  in  preparing  for 
the  press  the  succeeding  volumes,  which  now  began 
to  appear  in  rapid  succession.  The  second  volume 
was  printed  in  December,  1827,  and  the  third  volume 
in  October,  1828.  Such  was  his  diligence  that  a  fourth 
was  added  in  April,  1830. 

When  the  Chancellor  published  his  first  volume  of 
Commentaries  it  was  contemplated  to  complete  the 
work  in  two  volumes.  But  he  speedily  discovered 
that  greater  breadth  was  required,  and  it  was  ex- 
panded into  a  third  and  yet  into  a  fourth  volume. 
"  I  am  printing  a  third  volume  of  Commentaries," 
he  wrote  to  his  brother  in  September,  1828,  "and 
correcting  a  proof  of  eight  pages  daily.  I  have  near 
two  hundred  pages  already  printed,  and  I  shall  be 
obliged  to  print  a  fourth  volume.  I  cannot  crowd 
what  I  have  into  the  third  volume,  including  a  large 
index." 

Again,  two  months  later,  he  was  able  to  write: 
"  We  attend  to  business  diligently,  and  I  shall  shortly 
commence  writing  my  fourth  volume  of  Commenta- 
ries." But  such  were  the  difficulties  of  the  subjects 
treated  that  his  progress  was  not  as  great  as  he  could 
have  wished.  January  2,  1830,  he  again  wrote  to  his 
brother :  "  I  am  busy,  very  busy  with  my  fourth 
volume,  but  the  subjects  are  very  abstruse  and  per- 
plexing, and  I  move  very  slowly  and  warily  through 
the  mazes  of  contingent  remainders,  executory  de- 
vises, uses,  trusts,  and  powers,  and  the  modifications 


196        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

which  they  have  received  by  our  Revised  Statutes." 
It  was  early  in  this  year,  however,  that  the  work  was 
completed  and  the  final  volume  given  to  the  public. 
It  met  with  instant  and  enthusiastic  success.  The 
commendations  which  it  called  forth  from  men  of 
the  highest  eminence,  on  the  Bench  and  at  the  Bar, 
were  sufficient  to  ensure  the  perpetuity  of  the  work. 
Chief-Justice  Savage  wrote  :  — 

CJiief -Justice  Savage  to  Chancellor  Kent. 

May  6,  1830. 

Dear  Sir,  —  A  few  days  before  I  left  home  I  had  the 
honor  of  receiving  from  you  by  the  hands  of  Mr.  Foot  the 
fourth  volume  of  your  Commentaries.  Having  heretofore 
received  from  you  the  three  previous  volumes,  I  embrace 
this  occasion  to  present  you  my  grateful  acknowledgments 
for  so  valuable  a  donation.  I  hope  I  may  be  permitted  to 
say  that  from  your  elevated  standing  both  as  a  judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court  and  as  Chancellor  much  was  expected  from 
your  labors  after  your  retirement  from  the  Bench,  and  that 
public  expectation  has  not  been  disappointed.  Your  Com- 
mentaries will  remain  a  living  testimonial  of  your  learning 
and  industry  to  future  generations.  Your  labors  have  con- 
tributed more  than  those  of  any  other  individual  to  elevate 
the  American  judicial  character. 

May  you  long  live  to  enjoy  the  respect  and  esteem  which 
your  character  and  talents  have  acquired. 

In  acknowledgment  of  a  copy  of  the  Commenta- 
ries, sent  with  the  author's  compliments,  Chief-Justice 
Prentiss,  of  Vermont,  wrote :  — 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        197 

Chief-Justice  Prentiss  to  Chancellor  Kent. 

MoNTPELiER,  Vermont,  May  8,  1830. 
Dear  Sir,  —  On  my  return  home  a  few  days  since,  after 
an  absence  of  several  weeks,  I  found  your  obliging  letter  of 
the  13th  ult.,  with  an  order  upon  your  bookseller,  directing 
him  to  deliver  to  me  the  third  and  the  fourth  volumes  of 
your  Commentaries.  I  beg  you  to  accept  my  thanks  for 
this  instance  of  your  kindness  and  civility,  and  be  assured 
that  I  shall  avail  myself  of  the  first  opportunity  to  forward 
the  order  and  obtain  the  books.  Coming  from  any  one 
they  would  be  esteemed  a  valuable  present,  but  more 
especially  so  when  presented  by  the  learned  author  himself. 
Before  the  work  was  announced  to  the  public  I  had  become 
familiar  with  your  reported  opinions  in  the  Courts  of 
Equity  and  Common  Law,  and  entertained  a  decided  con- 
viction that  no  opinions,  either  in  the  English  or  American 
reports  were  more  learned,  luminous,  and  sound,  or  ex- 
pressed in  a  purer  and  more  classical  style.  They  were 
entirely  sufficient  in  my  estimation  to  entitle  you  to  the 
highest  rank  among  the  lawyers  and  jurists  of  the  age,  and 
it  may  with  truth  be  said  that  to  your  judicial  labors  and 
those  of  Parsons  and  Marshall,  we  are  principally  indebted 
for  the  elevated  character  which  the  jurisprudence  of  this 
country  at  present  sustains.  The  learning  and  ability 
evinced  in  your  opinions,  contained  in  Johnson's  Reports, 
very  naturally  led  me  to  form  high  expectations  of  the 
merits  of  the  work  on  which  you  have  been  recently  en- 
gaged :  and  it  is  but  justice  to  say  that  so  far  as  I  have 
had  opportunity  to  examine  the  work,  it  has  answered  every 
expectation  and  amply  sustained  your  high  reputation.  In 
devoting  your  time  and  talents  to  the  accomplishment  of  a 
work  of  so  much  utility,  you  have  rendered  an  acceptable 
seiTice  to  the  profession,  not  only  in  your  own  State,  but 


198        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

throughout  the  Union.  You  will  excuse  me  for  saying  thus 
much  on  the  merits  of  your  labors,  since  the  occasion 
seemed  to  authorize  me  to  say  something,  and  truth  and 
sincerity  would  not  allow  me  to  say  less. 

Letters  similar  in  their  tenor  were  received  by 
Chancellor  Kent  from  Chief-Justice  Prentiss  Mellen, 
of  Maine;  from  Governor  J.  C.Smith;  from  Chief- 
Justice  Shaw,  of  Massachusetts ;  from  Professor  Silli- 
man,  of  Yale  College  ;  from  Judge  Piatt ;  from  William 
Wills,  an  eminent  English  writer  upon  jurisprudence; 
from  Judge  Porter,  of  Louisiana;  from  Judge  Henry 
Baldwin,  of  Washington,  D.  C. ;  and  from  many  others 
equally  eminent  and  learned.  The  first  edition  was 
rapidly  exhausted,  and  so  early  as  September,  1830, 
we  find  Chancellor  Kent  writing  to  his  brother :  "  I 
must  waive  all  anxieties  for  the  future  and  betake 
myself  to  the  new  and  various  reading  that  daily 
arises,  and  prepare  my  Commentaries  for  a  new 
edition."     A  few  weeks  later  he  again  writes :  — 

Chancellor  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

December  22,  1830. 
I  have  just  completed  the  sale  of  all  the  entire  sets  of 
my  Commentaries,  though  I  have  a  good  many  odd  volumes 
of  the  first,  third,  and  fourth  volumes.  The  first  is  sepa- 
rately wanted  for  academies,  and  the  third  and  fourth  to 
supply  defective  sets  in  the  hands  of  former  purchasers.  I 
shall  probably,  before  the  end  of  the  next  year,  prepare 
myself  for  printing  a  new  and  corrected,  and  somewhat  en- 
larged edition.  This  I  shall  not  do  until  the  booksellers 
have  had  sufficient  opportunity  to  sell  what  is  on  hand,  nor 
do  I  declare  any  such  intentions.     I  only  mean  to  show 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        199 

that  I  am  doing  very  well  with  the  work  and  that  it  prom- 
ises to  be  a  source  of  moderate  but  permanent  income. 

A  comparison  of  the  first  and  second  editions  will 
show  what  an  enormous  advance  was  made  in  the 
preparation  of  the  new  work,  in  which  the  form  of  a 
series  of  lectures  is  retained,  but  the  entire  context 
broadened  out  into  almost  its  present  comprehensive 
shape.     In  August,  1832,  he  writes  to  his  brother:  — 

"  I  have  now  just  about  finished  my  index  and  put  the 
finishing  stroke  to  the  second  edition  of  my  Commentaries. 
1  shall  send  the  last  edition  to  the  printer  in  a  day  or  so." 

Chancellor  Kent  never  allowed  his  Commentaries 
to  be  stereotyped,  but  up  to  the  very  last  moment 
kept  pace  with  the  newly  reported  decisions,  and  cor- 
rected and  annotated  the  proofs,  as  they  came  from 
the  press. 

He  was  by  no  means  in  favor  of  the  methods  of 
the  modern  schools  whereby  law  is  "  made  easy." 
He  had  reached  the  exalted  position  which  he  had 
held,  by  dint  of  persistent  work  and  untiring  study, 
and  he  realized  what  was  the  true  duty  of  those  who 
followed  the  profession  to  which  he  had  devoted  his 
life. 

It  is  related  that,  being  questioned  by  one  of  his 
proof-readers,  while  preparing  one  of  the  editions  of 
the  Commentaries,  as  to  why  it  would  not  be  to  the 
advantage  of  both  lawyer  and  client  if  all  Latin  and 
intricate  technical  phrases  were  reduced  to  plain  Eng- 
lish, so  that  every  man  might  read  and  understand 
the  law,  he  is  said  to  have  replied :  — 

"  It 's  all  right;  we  don't  want  every  man  to  be  his 


200       MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

own  lawyer,  and  he  could  not  be,  even  if  all  the  Latin 
was  in  the  plainest  possible  English.  What  kind  of 
legal  protection  would  you  have  if  every  man  could 
be  a  lawyer?  All  things  are  changing,  it  is  true,  but 
when  you  find  law  made  easy  to  the  meanest  com- 
prehension, look  out  for  countless  volunteers  in  our 
noble  profession,  to  whom  good  Latin  and  correct 
English  are  alike  inaccessible." 

The  second  edition  of  the  Commentaries  appeared 
in  due  time,  and  this,  too,  met  with  ready  sale,  for  in 
the  autumn  of  1835  still  a  third  edition  was  demanded. 
"  I  am  quite  busy,"  he  wrote  to  his  brother,  October 
20,  1835,  "as  the  printers  began  yesterday  to  print 
the  third  edition  of  my  Commentaries  and  the  ex- 
amination of  the  pages,  before  they  go,  and  the 
correction  of  the  proof  sheets  will  keep  me  occupied 
considerably  every  day  for  months  to  come.  I  shall 
have  to  correct  the  whole,  when  in  the  course  of 
printing  and  to  make  an  index.  This  is  quite  a  labo- 
rious job.  There  are  a  great  many  books  of  reports 
and  treatises  that  must  be  examined,  and  notes  to  my 
Commentaries  added,  as  they  go  successively  to  the 
press." 

It  was  not  until  the  completion  of  the  fourth  edition, 
which  appeared  in  1841,  that  Chancellor  Kent's  life 
work  ended.  That  he  considered  this  to  be  his  final 
effort  seems  probable  from  a  note  in  his  Ledger  in 
which  he  says  :  — - 

"The  printing  bill  for  the  fourth  edition  was  un- 
duly large,  but  it  is  to  be  considered  that  this  edition 
was  much  larger,  and  a  great  many  more  pages,  and  a 
great  many  more  small  notes,  and  the  addition  of  a 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        201 

table  of  cases.  This  rendered  the  fourth  edition  much 
more  heavy  to  print,  and  took  more  labor  and  time." 
It  was  then,  at  last,  that  he  rested  from  his  labors, 
for  he  does  not  appear  to  have  contemplated  another 
edition  until  just  before  his  death.  As  late  as  March, 
1847,  he  wrote  to  his  son :  — 

Chancellor  Kent  to  Judge  William  Kent. 

New  York,  March  22,  1847. 

My  dear  Son,  —  I  have  got  quite  startled  about  the 
decreasing  numbers  of  my  Commentaries.  In  reckoning  up 
the  number  of  sets  left,  I  find  that  I  have  but  499  sets  out 
of  the  original  number  of  3000  left,  and  of  that  499  there 
are  150  less  of  Vol.  I.,  so  that,  in  fact,  I  have  left  unsold 
but  349  entire  sets.  I  must  begin  a  new  edition  next  au- 
tumn. I  hope  I  shall  have  strength,  health,  and  resolution 
enough  to  go  through  with  it  without  calling  on  you. 

You  need  not  be  at  all  uneasy  about  me.  For  our  great 
age,  Ma  and  I  are  wonderful  folks  ;  we  are  cheerful,  spirited, 
active,  social,  capable  of  all  our  relative  duties,  and  withal 
extremely  tender,  affectionate,  and  not  querulous. 

It  is  hard  to  over-value  the  civilizing  influence  of 
Kent's  Commentaries  on  American  Law.  It  was  a 
work  emphatically  demanded  by  the  requirements  of 
the  time,  and,  furthermore,  the  age  was  ripe  for  the 
beginning  of  the  development  of  this  country.  It 
was  at  once  so  comprehensive  in  its  character,  so 
accurate  in  its  deductions  and  reasoning,  so  highly 
scientific  in  the  true  acceptation  of  the  term,  so  clear 
and  simple  in  its  statements  and  design,  that  it  at 
once  found   its  way  into   the  hands  of  the  general 


202        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

practitioner,  and  with  him  it  went  out  to  all  parts  of 
the  American  world.  In  the  Justice  Courts,  in  the 
terms  held  at  county  towns,  and  in  the  high  courts 
of  the  States,  it  was  the  highest  authority  upon  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  law;  ever  broadening 
its  sphere,  particularly  throughout  the  ever  widening 
West,  until  the  whole  country,  from  ocean  to  ocean, 
was  permeated  by  the  same  principles,  the  same  de- 
ductions, and  practically  the  same  laws,  based,  for  the 
most  part,  upon  the  life  work  of  New  York's  greatest 
lawyer. 

Considered  in  the  hght  of  a  law  book  its  range  has 
been  extraordinary.  It  has  run  through  fourteen  edi- 
tions, the  latest  having  been  issued  during  the  year 
1896,  and  the  demand  and  sale  for  it  is  steady  from 
all  parts  of  the  country.  It  is  the  first  book  placed 
in  the  hand  of  the  law  student,  it  stands  on  the  shelf 
of  every  practicing  lawyer,  and  whenever  an  intricate 
case  is  presented  for  consideration,  many  a  careful 
lawyer  will  turn  to  it  to  refresh  his  mind  on  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  question  before  him,  before  proceeding 
further  with  his  investigation.  This  is  Chancellor 
Kent's  true  monument;  in  it  breathe  the  principles 
of  truth,  law,  and  equity,  and,  like  Blackstone's  Com- 
mentaries on  English  Law,  the  revered  masterpiece 
of  British  jurisprudence,  Kent's  Commentaries  will 
stand  enshrined  in  the  hearts  of  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  American  lawyers,  the  great  Bar  of  the 
United  States. 

In  leaving  the  subject  of  the  monumental  work  of 
Chancellor  Kent,  completion  must  be  sought  by  the 
presentation  of  two  letters,  found  among  his  papers. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        203 

The  first  of  these  is  of  pecuHar  interest,  as  having 
been  written  by  Mr.  Sumner,  while  he  was  yet  a 
Reporter  of  Decisions,  and  before  his  name  became 
enrolled  among  the  greatest  of  American  statesmen. 

Charles  Siinuier  to  Chancellor  Kent. 

Boston,  April  5,  1836. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  the  honor  to  ask  your  acceptance  of 
the  accompanying  copy  of  the  first  volume  of  my  Reports 
of  the  judgments  of  Mr.  Justice  Story  on  the  first  circuit. 
Your  well  known  friendship  for  the  learned  Judge  (upon 
which  he  has  so  often  dwelt  within  my  hearing),  and  your 
enthusiasm  for  the  law  make  me  indulge  the  expectation 
that  the  present  volume,  containing  many  thorough  and 
luminous  opinions  on  various  and  almost  opposite  branches 
of  the  law,  so  strikingly  illustrative  of  the  wide  and  compre- 
hensive learning  and  ability  of  their  author,  will  not  be  with- 
out its  interest  to  you. 

I  feel  happy  in  the  opportunity  afforded  by  this  letter  of 
expressing  to  you  my  lively  sense  of  the  deep  debt  which 
every  American  lawyer  owes  to  you,  and  no  one  feels  it 
more  than  myself,  for  the  light  which  you  have  cast  over 
the  dark  and  rugged  paths  of  legal  study  :  first,  by  the  large 
and  splendid  series  of  judicial  opinions,  in  which  justice 
was  so  nobly  administered  and  the  law  so  steadfastly  ad- 
vanced ;  and  second,  by  your  admirable  Commentaries, 
which  have  now  become  the  manual  of  the  practitioner,  as 
they  have  since  their  first  publication  been  the  institute  of 
the  students.  Not  a  day  passes  without  reminding  me  of 
the  value  of  your  labors,  and  without  strengthening  in 
me  those  feelings  of  attachm.ent  as  towards  a  cherished 
instmctor. 


204        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

Edward  Everett  to  Chancellor  Kejit. 

Boston,  31  October,  1845. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  have  intended  ever  since  my  return 
home  last  month  to  recall  myself  to  your  friendly  recollec- 
tion, for  the  purpose  of  expressing  to  you  the  great  satisfac- 
tion with  which,  during  my  residence  in  England,  I  witnessed 
the  extent  to  which  your  professional  character  and  labors 
are  known  and  appreciated  there.  It  is  certainly  no  injus- 
tice to  others,  nor  flattery  to  you  to  say,  that  your  name 
and  that  of  the  great  man  whose  loss  we  have  lately  been 
called  to  deplore,^  were  oftener  mentioned  by  the  jurists  of 
England  with  whom  I  had  the  honor  to  be  acquainted  than 
those  of  any  of  our  countrymen.  I  was  led  to  think  that  an 
estimate  of  the  weight  of  your  authority  and  of  his  had  been 
formed  in  the  House  of  Lords  and  in  Westminster  Hall, 
which  might  be  called  generous  if  it  were  not  so  entirely 
just. 

For  myself,  I  owe  you  a  great  debt  of  personal  obliga- 
tion. I  was  constantly  inquired  of  as  to  points  of  American 
Law,  in  reference  to  which  the  little  general  reading  I  have 
on  the  subject  often  left  me  at  a  loss  for  an  answer.  In 
such  cases  your  Commentaries  were  my  unvarying  resort, 
and  I  seldom  failed  to  find  what  I  needed. 

Although  closely  engaged  in  the  preparation  of  the 
Commentaries  for  their  successive  editions,  Chancellor 
Kent  still  found  time  to  carry  on  a  large  and  interest- 
ing correspondence  with  many  men  of  note.  From 
all  parts  of  the  country  poured  in  upon  him  numerous 
requests  for  opinions  upon  every  conceivable  point  of 
law,  abstruse  or  intricate.  These  applications  came  at 
times  from  England,  which  was  now  beginning  to  seek 

1  Judge  Story. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        205 

investment  for  its  surplus  wealth  in  the  stock  enter- 
prises and  bonds  of  the  newly  built  and  projected 
railroads  in  our  country. 

Adhering  closely  to  the  plan  of  a  division  oT  time 
which  he  had  adopted  in  his  youth,  he  set  aside  a 
certain  portion  of  his  day  to  each  of  his  various  avo- 
cations, the  preparation  of  his  Commentaries,  counsel 
practice,  and  correspondence.  He  also  steadily  kept 
pace  with  the  rising  flood  of  legal  reports  and  deci- 
sions, of  which  he  may  be  said  to  have  been  the  father 
in  this  country.  Although  his  correspondence  was 
so  large  that,  at  times,  he  complained  of  the  burden 
it  imposed,  he  cheerfully  continued  to  meet  all  its 
requirements.  He  carefully  answered  all  letters,  not 
only  those  of  a  private  character,  but  at  times  answer- 
ing inquiries  upon  matters  of  great  public  importance. 

In  the  later  years  of  his  life  the  Chancellor  formed 
an  intimate  personal  acquaintance  and  friendship  with 
Daniel  Webster.  That  the  great  Expounder  of  the 
Constitution  did  not  scruple  to  draw,  upon  occasion, 
upon  the  fund  of  wisdom  accumulated  during  an 
experience  of  many  years  by  his  friend ;  and  that 
they  were  politically  in  accord,  the  following  corres- 
pondence is  ample  proof:  — 

Chancellor  Kent  to  Daniel  Webster. 

New  York,  January  21,  1830. 
Dear  Sir,  —  I  ought  to  have  replied  earlier  to  your  letter 
of  the  15th  instant,  but  I  have  been  diverted  by  a  number 
of  perplexing  avocations,  each  of  them,  singly,  petty  in  its 
nature,  but  conjointly  such  things  make  up  the  sum  of  the 
life  of  ordinary  minds ;    and  now  to  the  purpose.      I  beg 


2o6        MExMOIRS   OF   CHANCE^^LOR   KENT 

leave  to  decline  any  opinion  on  the  question  you  state ; 
first,  I  have  not  time  to  do  it  justice,  and  render  anything  I 
would  say  worthy  of  you  ;  second,  I  am  not  going  to  under- 
take to  instruct  a  senatorial  statesman,  who  has  thought  on 
the  subject  infinitely  more  than  I  have,  for  it  comes  officially 
before  him. 

Hamilton,  in  the  Federalist,  No.  77,  was  of  the  opinion 
that  the  President  could  not  remove  without  the  consent  of 
the  Senate.  I  heard  the  question  debated  in  the  summer 
of  1789,  and  Madison,  Benson,  Lawrance,  etc.,  were  in 
favor  of  the  right  of  removal  by  the  President,  and  such  has 
been  the  opinion  ever  since  and  the  practice.  I  thought 
they  were  right,  for  I  then  thought  this  side  uniformly  right. 
Mr.  White  of  Virginia  was  strenuously  opposed  to  that  con- 
struction. You  will  find  the  discussion  in  Fenno's  U.  S. 
Gazetteer  for  July  or  August  or  September,  1789.  Mr. 
Madison  reasons  technically  like  a  lawyer.  Now  when  I 
come  to  think  on  the  subject,  with  my  confirmed  wary  views 
of  things,  I  pause  and  doubt  of  the  construction  on  account 
of  the  word  "advice."  That  word  is  pregnant  with  mean- 
ing, and  means  something  beyond  consent  to  nominations, 
or  it  would  not  have  been  inserted.  The  "  consent  "  (so  it 
might  be  argued)  applies  to  the  individual  named.  The 
"  advice  "  is  the  measure  itself  which  draws  to  it  the  whole 
ground  of  the  interference.  Again,  it  is  a  great,  a  general 
principle  in  all  jurisprudence  that  where  there  is  no  positive 
provision  in  the  case  regulating  the  principle,  the  power 
that  appoints  is  the  power  to  determine  the  pleasure  of 
the  appointment  and  the  limitation.  It  is  the  power  to 
re-appoint ;  and  the  power  to  appoint  and  re-appoint,  when 
all  else  is  silent,  is  the  power  to  remove.  I  begin  to  have  a 
strong  suspicion  that  Hamilton  was  right,  as  he  always  was 
on  public  questions. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  too  late  to  call  the  President's 
power  in  question,  after  a  declaratory  act  of  Congress  and 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        207 

an  acquiescence  of  half  a  century.  We  should  hurt  the 
reputation  of  our  Government  with  the  world,  and  we  are 
accused  already  of  the  republican  tendency  of  reducing  all 
executive  power  into  the  legislative,  and  making  Congress  a 
national  convention.  That  the  President  [Andrew  Jackson] 
grossly  abuses  the  power  of  removal  is  manifest,  but  it  is  the 
evil  genius  of  democracy  to  be  the  sport  of  factions.  Ham- 
ilton said  in  the  Federalist,  in  his  speeches,  and  a  hundred 
times  to  me,  that  factions  would  ruin  us,  and  our  Govern- 
ment had  not  sufficient  energy  and  balance  to  resist  the 
propensity  to  them,  and  to  control  their  tyranny  and  their 
profligacy.  All  theories  of  government  that  suppose  the 
mass  of  the  people  virtuous,  and  able  and  willing  to  act 
virtuously,  are  plainly  Utopian,  and  will  remain  so  until  the 
Satumian  age. 

Daniel  Webster  to  Cliaiicellor  Kent. 

Washington,  April  27,  1830. 
My  dear  Sir,  —  I  thank  you  much  for  both  your  letters. 
They  have  helped  me.  I  can  hardly  find  a  just  and  reason- 
able man,  who  can  speak  what  he  thinks,  who  does  not  admit 
that  my  amendment  is  right  in  principle.  Yet  party  envy, 
hatred,  and  malice  are  most  likely  eventually  to  defeat  it. 
We  are  fallen  on  evil  times,  as  times  are  when  public  men  seek 
low  objects,  and  when  the  tone  of  public  morals  and  public 
feeling  is  depressed  and  debased.  I  hope  our  children  may 
see  a  better  state  of  things,  —  a  state  of  things  in  which  that 
part  of  our  prosperity  and  greatness  which  depends  on  our- 
selves may  bear  some  little  proportion  to  the  many  favors 
with  which  Providence  has  distinguished  our  country. 


2o8        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

Daniel  Webster  to  CJianccllor  Kent. 
[private  and  confidential.] 

Boston,  October  29,  1832. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  Mr.  Calhoun,  as  you  are  doubtless  aware, 
has  published  a  labored  defence  of  nullification,  in  the  form 
of  a  letter  to  Governor  Hamilton.  It  is  far  the  ablest  and 
most  plausible,  and  therefore  the  most  dangerous,  vindication 
of  that  particular  form  of  revolution  which  has  yet  appeared. 
In  the  silence  of  abler  pens,  and  seeing,  as  I  think  I  do, 
that  the  affairs  of  this  government  are  fast  approaching  a 
crisis,  I  have  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  to  answer  Mr.  Calhoun. 
And  as  he  adopted  the  form  of  a  letter  in  which  to  put 
forth  his  opinions,  I  think  of  giving  my  answer  a  similar 
form.  The  object  of  this  is  to  ask  your  permission  to 
address  my  letter  to  you.  I  propose  to  feign  that  I  have 
read  a  letter  from  you,  calling  my  attention  to  Mr.  Calhoun's 
publication,  and  then,  in  answer  to  your  supposed  letter,  to 
proceed  to  review  his  able  argument  at  some  length,  not  in 
the  style  of  a  speech,  but  in  that  of  cool  constitutional  and 
legal  discussion.  If  you  feel  no  repugnance  to  be  thus 
written  to,  I  shall  be  obliged  to  you  for  your  assent ;  on  the 
other  hand,  if  any  reasons  suggest  themselves  to  your  mind 
against  such  a  form  of  publication,  another  can  be  readily 
adopted.  I  cannot  complete  the  paper  before  election,  as 
I  am  at  present  a  good  deal  pressed  with  professional 
affairs  ;  but  I  hope  to  bring  it  into  light  in  the  course  of 
next  month. 

I  have  little  to  say  to  you,  my  dear  sir,  upon  political 
subjects.  The  whole  ground  is  open  to  you.  I  trust  ycu 
will  be  one  of  those  who  will  have  votes  to  give,  and  I  de- 
voutly pray  that  you  may  yet  see  some  way  of  uniting  the 
well-disposed  to  rescue  us  from  our  peril. 


MEMOIRS  OF  CHANCELLOR   KENT       209 

Chancellor  Kent  to  Daniel  Webster. 

New  York,  October  31,  1832. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  no  objection  that  you  should  address, 
in  the  form  of  a  letter  or  letters  to  me,  your  remarks  on  the 
Vice-President's  scheme  of  nuUification,  and  that  you  should 
assume  it  to  be  in  answer  to  a  letter  from  me  relative  to 
that  subject.  I  shall  deem  it  an  honor  to  be  addressed  by 
you  while  engaged  in  the  investigation  of  such  an  interesting 
subject.  The  Vice-President  enclosed  one  of  his  pamphlets 
to  me,  and  I  read  it  attentively.  It  is  ingeniously  written, 
but  such  a  construction  of  the  Constitution  and  such  prin- 
ciples as  he  deduces  are  visionary  and  most  unsound  and 
sophistical.  His  repugnance  to  all  solid  constitutional 
principles  would  fix  a  deadly  power  of  destruction  in  the 
very  vitals  of  the  government.  The  crisis  is  indeed  por- 
tentous and  frightful.  We  are  threatened  with  destruction 
all  around  us,  and  we  seem  to  be  fast  losing  our  original 
good  sense  and  virtue.  The  democracy  require  all  their 
candidates  for  Congress  in  this  city  to  give  another  pledge 
to  support  all  the  measures  of  the  administration.  Can 
anything  be  more  degrading  and  monstrous  ?  Is  the  proud 
House  of  Representatives  and  the  grand  inquest  of  the 
nation  to  be  composed  of  such  materials  ? 

We  are  in  hopes  of  carrying  the  electoral  ticket,  in  which 
I  am  included,  but  the  struggle  will  be  tremendous.  It 
will  be  the  great  battle  of  Armageddon  between  the  Genius 
of  Liberty,  and  the  Spirits  of  Darkness  ;  and  suppose  we 
should  succeed,  what  then?  Pennsylvania  and  Vermont, 
if  they  succeed,  will  certainly  vote  for  Wirt,  and  then,  at 
all  events,  the  case  goes  to  the  House  of  Representatives, 
where  Jackson  will  get  thirteen  States.  New  York  would 
vote,  I  presume,  either  for  Clay  or  Wirt  as  would  best  insure 
success,  but  Massachusetts,  Jersey,  etc.,  and  especially  the 
former,  will  be  tenacious  and  hold  out  for  Clay.     I  foresee 


210       MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

difficulties.  If  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  succeed  with 
their  electoral  tickets,  there  is  no  chance  for  success  but 
for  every  electoral  college  opposed  to  Jackson  to  unite  on 
their  candidate,  and  I  see  no  probability  of  such  a  union 
but  upon  Wirt. 

If  we  succeed  in  our  election  I  shall  take  the  liberty  of 
writing  you  again,  to  ask  for  a  free  communication  of  sen- 
timents ;  if  we  fail,  then  indeed  we  may  hang  our  harps 
upon  the  willows,  or  the  witch-elm  that  shades  Saint  Fillan's 
Spring. 

Your  speech  at  Worcester  was  admirable  for  its  logic  as 
well  as  for  its  fervor  and  force.  If  we  are  to  be  saved  we 
shall  be  largely  indebted  to  you.     Si  pergama  dextra,  etc. 

Again,  as  late  as  1846,  Daniel  Webster  is  found 
submitting  a  question,  which  he  undoubtedly  designed 
to  argue,  to  the  consideration  of  his  friend,  Chancellor 
Kent.     The  Chancellor  replied :  — 

Chancellor  Kent  to  Daniel  Webster. 

New  York,  March  20,  1846. 
My  dear  Sir,  —  I  have  some  difficulty  in  answering  the 
grave  question  you  submit  to  me.  I  have  not  had  the  bene- 
fit of  any  discussion,  and  I  learn  of  no  precedent  to  guide 
me.  My  diffidence  in  regard  to  the  point  is  sincere  and 
embarrassing.  Under  circumstances,  it  appears  to  me  that 
it  does  not  belong  to  the  Executive  department  of  our 
government  to  determine  on  the  expediency  of  the  notice 
and  to  give  it.  It  is  an  item  in  the  progress  of  executive 
negotiation.  The  President,  in  his  message  of  December, 
is  not  of  a  very  conciliatory  spirit  in  respect  to  the  Oregon 
question,  but  he  seems  to  deem  it  still  open  to  negotiation 
though  the  notice  could  be  given  and  the  joint  occupation 
terminated.     Further  negotiation  may  still  be  had  consis- 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR    KENT        211 

tently  with  the  convention  of  18 18.  The  notice  would 
leave  the  parties  where  they  were  prior  to  that  convention, 
that  is,  in  a  pacific  state  under  a  pending  negotiation. 
Congress  has  nothing  to  do  with  diplomatic  matters.  The 
Senate  is  in  many  respects  a  branch  of  the  executive  power 
but  the  House  of  Representatives  has  nothing  to  do  with 
negotiation.  They  cannot  interfere  with  notice,  with  send- 
ing or  withdrawing  ministers,  or  sending  them  away,  or  with 
negotiations  or  communications  with  foreign  governments. 
They  can  vote  for  war,  and  there  is  the  limit  of  the  ex- 
ercise of  their  power. 

If  any  branch  of  the  Legislature  is  to  advise  notice  on 
any  step  in  international  matters,  it  is  the  Senate.  Upon 
the  whole,  my  impression  is  that  Congress  has  nothing  to 
do  with  a  giving  notice  or  any  advice  concerning  it.  These 
are  my  earliest  impressions. 

The  appointment  of  Chancellor  Kent  as  one  of  the 
presidential  electors  of  his  State  was  a  last  expiring 
effort  to  perpetuate  a  system  in  the  election  of  the 
Chief  Magistrate,  which  has,  of  late  years,  entirely 
disappeared.  Under  the  Constitution  it  was  the  in- 
tention, undoubtedly,  in  providing  for  an  electoral 
college,  that  the  representative  men,  who  held  the 
position  of  electors,  should  enter  upon  the  discharge 
of  their  duties  untrammeled  by  the  pledge  of  party 
obligation,  or  the  bias  of  partisanship.  Thus  freed 
from  all  restraint,  these  electors,  should  deposit  their 
votes  for  the  man  who,  in  their  collective  judgment, 
most  fully  met  the  requirements  of  the  situation. 
That  Chancellor  Kent  still  held  to  the  ancient  tradi- 
tions of  the  office,  the  following  correspondence  and 
the  indorsement  of  the  letter  to  Judge  Spencer  will 
clearl}'  indicate. 


212        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

CJuef-Justice  Spoiccr  to  Chancellor  Kent. 

New  Albany,  September  21,  1S32. 

My  dear  Friend,  —  I  returned  two  or  three  days  since 
from  a  visit  to  my  sons  in  the  West,  and  it  affords  me  great 
pleasure  to  be  enabled  to  say  to  you  that  our  prospects  of 
electing  Granger  and  Stevens  and  the  electoral  ticket  nomi- 
nated at  Utica,  with  your  name  at  its  head,  are  most  cheer- 
ing ;  it  is  the  universal  belief  of  all  well-informed  men  (our 
friends  of  course)  that  we  shall  succeed.  Appearances  are 
very  flattering  in  this  and  the  adjoining  counties,  and  I  am 
of  opinion  that,  independently  of  the  vast  changes  in  the 
West,  there  will  be  changes  in  the  river  counties  alone, 
should  we  hold  good  the  vote  of  1830  in  the  western  coun- 
ties, to  elect  our  ticket. 

As  I  had  anticipated,  attempts  have  been  made  to  mis- 
represent you  to  the  public  and  to  induce  a  belief  that  you 
had  freely  given  your  opinion  on  the  Presidential  candidates. 
This  I  am  persuaded  you  have  not  done  and  will  not  until 
the  proper  period.  A  writer  in  the  "  Argus  "  thought  to  win 
you  by  his  blandishments  to  decline  being  an  elector ;  this 
writer  I  take  to  be  the  notorious  Sam  Young,  who  loves  you 
with  a  bitter  hatred.  The  fact  is  that  your  character,  your 
pure  disinterestedness,  and  your  patriotism,  caused  the  Jack- 
son leaders  a  panic,  when  they  perceived  your  name  on  both 
tickets,  for  they  well  know  the  universal  respect  which  that 
name  had  earned,  by  talent  and  ser\'ice,  which  will  be  bet- 
ter appreciated  by  posterity  than  the  present  generation. 

I  am  glad  to  perceive  that  you  remain  unmoved  by  all 
they  say  to  you  or  of  you.  I  recommend  a  perseverance  in 
that  course,  and  that  you  neither  admit  nor  deny  anything. 
Perfect  silence  only  is  required,  and  let  those  poisoned,  de- 
graded papers  say  what  they  please,  your  friends  will  defend 
you.     My  feelings  have  never  before  been  so  acute  as  they 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        213 

now  are  when  I  contemplate  the  calamities  which  await  the 
nation  if  that  barbarian  Jackson  shall  be  elected. 

Again  upon  the  same  subject  Judge  Spencer  writes 
to  the  Chancellor,  in  October,  1832:  — 

[profoundly  confidential.] 

I  understand  that  some  time  since  you  received  a  letter 
from  one  David  Miller  of  Genesee  County,  requesting  your 
opinion,  or  rather  asking  for  whom  you  intended  to  vote  as 
Vice-President  and  President  in  case  you  were  elected ; 
that  you  answered  this  letter  saying  that  you  should  vote 
for  Wirt  and  Ellmaker,  and  it  was  actually  put  into  the  post 
ofifice,  but  afterwards  taken  out.  These  facts  are  only  known 
to  a  few  and  can  do  no  hurt. 

My  son  has  just  informed  me  that  this  same  Miller,  who 
has  made  such  a  noise  as  an  anti-Mason,  is  about  coming 
out  denouncing  you  as  adverse  to  Wirt  and  anti- Masonry, 
and  our  friends  apprehend  that  it  will  do  a  serious  injury  to 
your  election  unless  it  can  be  counteracted.  Before  I  state 
the  precise  object  of  this  letter,  let  me  say  to  you  that, 
although  a  friend  to  Mr.  Clay  and  anxious  for  his  election, 
I  see  no  hope  of  effecting  it.  We  can  never  elect  him  with 
Pennsylvania  and  Vermont  against  him,  and  the  electors  in 
these  States  are  bound  by  solemn  pledges  to  vote  for  Wirt 
and  Ellmaker. 

My  opinion  is  that  all  the  anti-Jackson  strength  must  be 
concentrated  on  one  candidate,  and  that  we  must  defeat 
Jackson  in  the  college,  or  he  will  surely  be  our  next  Presi- 
dent. There  is  not  the  least  hope  that  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives will  elect  Clay  or  Wirt ;  most  assuredly  there 
will  be  thirteen  States  for  Jackson.  Under  these  circum- 
stances I  shall  advise  our  electors  to  vote  for  Wirt  and  Ell- 
maker.    Were  I  an  elector  in  your  place  I  should  indeed 


214        MEMOIRS   OF    CHANCELLOR    KEx\T 

vote  for  Mr.  Clay,  if  my  vote  would  defeat  Jackson  and  elect 
Clay,  and  then  I  would,  if  necessary,  retire  from  the  world, 
in  the  consciousness  that  I  had  saved  my  country ;  but  no 
such  case  of  self-immolation  presents  itself,  and,  as  the  mat- 
ter stands,  I  think  it  would  be  advisable,  on  the  score  of 
patriotism  and  expediency,  to  vote  for  Wirt.  I  should  say 
much,  but  you  will  anticipate  all  I  have  said. 

Now  to  the  point.  If  you  intend  to  vote  for  W.  and  E. 
if  you  are  elected,  I  advise  that  you  forthwith  write  a  letter 
to  John  C.  Spencer  at  Canandaigua  (he  leaves  here  on 
Tuesday  morning  next),  stating  Mr.  Miller's  letter  to  you, 
and  that  you  have  not  answered  him,  not  personally  knowing 
him,  but  that  you  have  no  objection  to  stating  candidly  to 
a  co-candidate  on  the  electoral  ticket  your  views  and  de- 
termination, should  you  be  elected,  then  giving  those  views 
without  any  injunction  to  secrecy.  My  son  will  then  see 
that  this  letter  be  circulated  only  where  it  will  do  good  and 
prevent  the  mischiefs  threatened.  He  will  take  his  own 
time  to  give  publicity  to  it. 

Van  Buren  has  been  into  Genesee,  and  my  son  told  me 
several  days  ago  that  his  confidants  had  boasted  of  a  meas- 
ure that  would  greatly  change  the  vote  of  that  county.  This 
is  the  stratagem  ;  Miller  has  been  bribed,  and  the  course  I 
indicate  is  the  only  one  which  can  counteract  what  I  fear  is 
a  deep  laid  plan  and  which  may  extend  far  beyond  Genesee. 
You  know  I  would  advise  nothing  dishonorable  or  injurious 
to  you.  I  need  not  say  to  you  that  we  must  defeat  Jackson 
by  all  honorable  means,  or  our  country  is  ruined. 

If  you  think  fit  to  say  one  word  of  what  I  have  written, 
with  a  view  to  advice,  for  God's  sake  let  it  be  to  one  per- 
son only,  and  let  him  be  a  discreet  man,  say  David  B. 
Ogden.  Write  me  what  you  have  done.  Perhaps  you  had 
better  enclose  the  letter  for  my  son  to  me  ;  it  is  best,  and  he 
shall  stay  here  until  after  the  boat  arrives  on  Tuesday. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        215 

Endorsement  on  foregoing  letter :  — 

I  answered  this  letter  immediately.  I  declined  writing 
to  J.  C.  S.  and  to  disclose  how  I  should  vote,  in  order  to 
have  it  shown,  as  it  might  have  the  appearance  of  elec- 
tioneering and  would  be  inconsistent  with  the  dignified 
reserve  I  had  hitherto  been  advised  to  keep  and  had  kept. 
Alderman  Stevens,  my  son,  S.  A.  Foote,  and  David  B. 
Ogden  advised  the  course  I  took  with  this  letter. 

That  Judge  Spencer  finally  approved  of  the  Chan- 
cellor's course  is  evident  from  the  following :  — 

Judge  Spencer  to  Chancellor  Kent. 

Albany,  October  31,  1832. 
My  dear  Sir,  —  I  am  glad  you  did  not  comply  with  my 
request,  and  I  see  by  the  Genesee  paper  that  Miller's  treach- 
ery has  done  no  harm  and  can  do  none ;  had  you  written 
as  I  requested  no  use  would  have  been  made  of  your  letter. 
If  you  read  or  see  the  "Albany  Evening  Journal,"  you  will 
perceive  the  abortion  of  Van  Buren's  scheme  to  change 
Genesee  County  from  its  present  position  by  operating  on 
Miller,  the  journalist  of  Morgan.  I  can  only  say  to  you 
that  in  this  region  our  prospects  were  never  better.  Our 
zeal  and  unremitted  exertions  cannot  be  surpassed,  even  in 
your  city.     God  prosper  the  holy  cause. 

Equally  interested  in  the  Presidential  election  then 
approaching  was  Edward  Everett  of  Massachusetts, 
who,  in  September,  1832,  wrote  to  Chancellor  Kent  to 
ascertain,  if  possible,  his  judgment  as  to  the  political 
probabilities  of  the  State  of  New  York. 


2i6        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 


Edward  Everett  to  CJiancellor  Kent. 

Charlestowx,  Mass.,  Sept.  15,  1832. 
My  dear  Sir,  —  I  take  the  liberty  to  trouble  you  with 
the  inquiry,  what,  in  your  judgment,  is  the  prospect  of  the 
approaching  Presidential  election  in  your  State?  Is  the 
union  between  Mr.  Clay's  friends  and  the  anti-Masons  so 
general  as  to  ensure  the  election  of  the  list  of  electors,  at 
the  head  of  which  your  name  is  placed?  If  that  list  is 
chosen,  to  whom  will  its  votes  be  given,  in  whole  or  in  part? 
I  am  aware,  dear  sir,  of  the  uncertainty  that  must  attend 
these  points,  and  of  the  delicacy  of  the  last  question,  as 
addressed  to  you.  My  motives  for  making  the  inquiry, 
beyond  that  of  a  natural  curiosity,  are  to  be  found  in  the 
circumstance  that  I  am  one  of  the  delegates  for  this  town 
to  the  National  Republican  Convention  of  this  State,  which 
meets  at  Worcester  on  the  nth  of  October,  at  which  it  will 
be  highly  expedient  that  accurate  information  from  all  quar- 
ters should  be  collected.  You  may  depend  upon  a  dis- 
creet and  confidential  use,  and  none  other,  being  made  ot 
any  communication  with  which  you  may  flivor  me  on  this 
subject. 

Chief-Justice  Daggett  of  Connecticut,  too,  shared 
with  Kent  and  Everett  and  Webster  their  apprehen- 
sions. The  Worcester  convention,  which  was  at  hand 
when  Everett  wrote  the  characteristic  letter  just  quoted, 
—  cool,  calm,  insinuating,  and  non-committal,  —  had 
been  held,  and  Webster  from  the  floor  had  delivered 
one  of  those  impassioned  speeches  which  raised  him 
to  the  highest  rank  among  the  orators  of  his  day. 
His  speech  had  been  published,  and  had  been  read 
by  thousands.     Upon  laying   it  down   after  perusal, 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        217 

Chief-Justice  Daggett  wrote  these  words  of  glowing 
eulogium  and  of  fearful  pessimism :  — 

Chief-Justice  Daggett  to  Chancellor  Kent. 

New  Haven,  Oct.  29,  1832. 

I  thank  you,  my  dear  sir,  for  the  four  volumes  of  your 
Commentaries  which  you  sent  me.  This  work  I  cherish 
with  more  affection  than  any  other  except  the  Bible  and 
Shakespeare.  Widi  a  distinguished  judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  I  esteem  it  the  best  general 
treatise  on  law  now  extant. 

Have  you  read  Webster's  speech  at  the  Worcester  con- 
vention? I  know  you  have.  Is  it  not  most  logical  and 
eloquent?  Can  such  an  appeal  to  the  good  sense,  the  jus- 
tice, and  the  patriotism  of  our  fellow-citizens  fail  to  affect 
the  approaching  election?  Or  will  the  people  refuse  to 
hear  Moses  and  the  prophets,  or  one  from  the  dead  ? 

I  declare  to  you,  my  friend,  though  I  witnessed  the  shut- 
ting of  the  port  of  Boston  in  1774,  the  battles  of  Lexington 
and  Bunker  Hill  in  1775,  the  rebellion  of  1787-8  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  the  portentous  period  of  1789,  I  never  felt 
such  fearful  forebodings  as  I  now  feel.  "  The  Lord  reign- 
eth  "  is  one  consolation.  This  nation  is  too  young,  though 
corrupt  enough,  for  destruction.     May  Heaven  defend  us  ! 

The  downfall  of  Federalism  and  the  triumph  of 
Jacobinism,  or  the  Republican  (now  the  Democratic) 
party,  was  a  serious  blow  to  Chancellor  Kent.  As  he 
denounced  Jefferson,  so,  too,  he  denounced  with  equal 
vigor  the  man  of  the  hour,  Andrew  Jackson,  and  the 
political  principles  which  he  represented.  In  April, 
1835,  he  wrote  to  his  brother:  — 


2i8        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR    KENT 

Chancellor  Kejit  to  Moss  Kent. 

April  3,  1835. 

Chief-Justice  Spencer  called  on  me  this  morning,  and  is 
as  vigorous,  vehement,  and  bold  and  dogmatic  as  ever.  We 
cordially  sympathize  together  in  abhorrence  of  Jacksonism. 
He  dines  with  me  to-morrow.  Daniel  Webster  is  in  town.  I 
was  at  dinner  with  him  and  a  large,  select  company  at  the 
house  of  James  G.  King,  who  is  sensible,  pure,  generous, 
patriotic.  Webster  was  the  oracle ;  and  wisdom,  if  not 
truths  divine,  came  mended  from  his  tongue. 

The  last  of  this  month  I  move  to  one  of  the  houses  across 
the  street.  I  think  I  improve  my  situation  and  house.  The 
raising  of  my  rent  drove  me  away.  My  studies  of  all  kinds 
are  pursued  with  my  ancient  ardor.  I  read  all  the  new  law 
books,  reports,  reviews,  literary,  political,  and  theological. 

You  will  see  by  the  New  York  papers  of  the  ist  and  2d 
inst.  that  my  son  was  secretary  at  a  meeting  at  Tammany 
Hall.  It  was  called  by  a  very  respectable  committee  from 
both  parties,  in  order  to  declare  and  protect  the  chartered 
rights  of  the  city  from  being  transferred  to  the  Albany 
Regency.  The  committee  sent  him  a  letter  requesting  him 
to  be  one  of  the  secretaries,  and  the  radical  mob  produced 
a  row  and  broke  up  the  meeting.  There  never  was  such 
misrule.  Our  Tory  rich  men  are  becoming  startled  and 
alarmed  at  our  downhill  course.  My  opinion  is  that  the 
admission  of  universal  suffrage  and  a  licentious  press  are 
incompatible  with  government  and  security  to  property,  and 
that  the  government  and  character  of  this  country  are  going 
to  ruin.  This  suffrage  is  too  great  an  excitement  for  any 
political  machine.  It  racks  it  to  pieces,  and  morals  go  with 
it.  It  is  probable  England  is  going  the  same  way.  We  are 
becoming  selfish,  profligate,  crazy. 

Our  religionists  are  fanatics,  and  our  temperance  societies 
are  pushing  to  disgusting  excess  and  becoming  intemperate 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        219 

in  temperance.  E.  Delevan  is  crazy,  and  so  are  all  four 
and  five  and  six  day  meeting  and  revival  folks.  Such,  entre 
nous,  are  my  sentiments.  Give  me  the  writings  of  Addison 
and  Locke,  and  the  Presbyterianism  of  Dr.  Ripley,  Dr. 
Styles,  and  old   Dr.  Rodgers. 

The  sentiments  of  Chancellor  Kent  toward  Thomas 
Jefferson  and  his  principles  are,  perhaps,  well  shown 
forth  by  a  letter  addressed  to  the  Chancellor  by 
Theodore  Dwight,  in  August,  1837.  It  is  unfortunate 
that  no  copy  of  his  reply  to  this  letter  is  preserved, 
but  from  the  circumstance  that  Mr.  Dwight  desired  to 
submit  the  plan  of  his  work  for  his  criticism,  it  cannot 
be  doubted  that  that  gentleman  was  confident  of  the 
sentiments  of  the  man  whom  he  was  addressing. 

Theodore  Dwight  to  Chancellor  Kent. 

Hartford,  August  3,  1837. 
My  dear  Sir,  —  Before  I  left  New  York,  I  had,  during 
my  confinement  to  the  house  by  rheumatism,  spent  some 
time  on  a  work  that  I  had  projected,  on  the  principles  and 
character  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  It  was  my  object  to  show 
by  evidence  drawn  from  his  own  works,  that  all  the  objec- 
tions which  the  Federalists  had  to  him  as  a  public  man  were 
true.  For  the  want  of  something  better  to  do,  since  I  have 
been  here,  I  have  been  engaged  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
plan,  and  have,  to  a  considerable  degree,  completed  it. 
Not  having  opportunity  to  consult  with  old  Federalists,  for 
the  greater  part  of  them  are  gone,  and  young  ones  are  not 
often  to  be  found  from  whom  I  might  derive  any  benefit,  I 
hope  you  will  pardon  me  for  troubling  you  with  this  letter, 
in  which  I  propose  to  give  you  a  general  sketch  of  my  plan, 
for  the  purpose  of  asking  you  whether  I  have  omitted  any 
important  item  in  the  list  of  charges  against  him,  and  if  so 


2  20       MEMOIRS  OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

what  they  are?  The  following  are  the  heads  of  the  cata- 
logue of  political  and  moral  defects  in  his  character.  The 
Federalists  believed  :  — 

1.  That  he  was  opposed  to  the  Constitution. 

2.  That  he  had  an  undue  attachment  to  France. 

3.  That  he  would  make  use  of  the  patronage  of  the 
Government  to  promote  his  own  and  his  party's  ends. 

4.  That  he  was  hostile  to  an  independent  judiciary. 

5.  That  he  entertained  dangerous  opinions  respecting 
the  principles  of  the  Constitution,  particularly  that  the  courts 
could  not  bind  the  executive. 

6.  That  one  generation  of  men  or  of  societies  cannot 
make  laws  or  constitutions  to  bind  their  successors. 

7.  That  he  was  a  mere  partisan  in  politics. 

8.  That  he  disregarded  the  Constitution  when  it  stood 
in  his  way  —  the  treaty-making  power. 

9.  Lisidious  attacks  upon  Washington. 

10.  That  he  was  no  statesman  —  abstract  of  his  messages. 

11.  That  he  was  an  enemy  to  Washington. 

12.  That  he  charged  the  Federalists  with  being  mon- 
archists. 

13.  Opposition  to  the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws. 

14.  Destitute  of  veracity. 

15.  Attacks  upon  Hamilton. 

16.  Habitually  insincere  and  hypocritical. 

17.  That  he  would  adopt  the  lowest  arts  of  a  demagogue. 

18.  Correspondence  with  Washington  about  dissensions 
in  the  cabinet. 

ig.   Was  not  a  Christian. 

I  hope  you  will  think  the  list  is  long  enough  in  all 
consci'^nce  ;  but  I  should  be  sorry  to  do  him  injustice  by 
omittmg  even  a  single  bright  trait  of  his  character.  My  pur- 
pose is  to  make  him  the  trumpeter  of  his  own  fame,  by  drawing 
from  his  own  works  the  proofs  of  specific  virtues  ;  and  it  is 
my  wish  to  make  the  catalogue  as  complete  as  possible. 


MEMOIRS  OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        221 

Will  you  have  the  goodness,  after  having  read  the  fore- 
going bill  of  parcels,  at  some  moment,  to  let  me  know  if 
any  material  article  is  omitted.  You  can  consult  your  lei- 
sure ;  and  if  you  have  any  idea  of  making  an  excursion  in  the 
summer  in  this  region,  I  would  much  rather  take  the  answer 
to  my  inquiries  from  your  own  mouth ;  as  I  might  have  the 
opportunity,  perhaps,  to  consult  with  you  a  little  about  the 
manner  of  the  execution  of  my  work. 

The  plan  I  believe  to  be  a  good  one.  I  only  wish  it  had 
been  taken  up  by  some  abler  hand.  But  seeing  no  prospect 
of  that,  and  feeling  satisfied  that  if  it  ever  is  done,  it  must 
be  before  the  generation  of  Federalists  has  passed  entirely 
away,  I  undertook  it.  In  my  judgment  justice  to  a  party  of 
as  virtuous  patriots  and  enlightened  statesmen  as  ever  lived 
requires  that  the  slanders  and  reproaches  of  one  of  the 
worst  of  men  should  not  be  suffered  to  go  down  to  future 
ages  uncontradicted  and  unexplained. 

That  Chancellor  Kent  was  thoroughly  in  accord 
with  Mr.  Dwight  in  his  conception  of  the  character 
of  Jefferson  is  fairly  shown  by  his  notes  pencilled  in 
the  first  volume  of  George  Tucker's  "  Life  of  Thomas 
Jefferson,"  published  in  1837,  which  illustrate  not  only 
his  method  of  making  such  memoranda,  but  reveal  his 
sentiments  on  reaching  that  portion  of  the  narrative 
which  dealt  with  that  period  of  Jefferson's  political 
career  with  which  he  himself  was  the  most  familiar. 

Notes  in   Tucker  s  "  Life  of  JejfersonT 

"Very  sage  remarks  on  the  illusions  that  mingle 
in  the  recollections  of  the  past,  p.  95." 

"Very  sensible  remarks  on  codification,  pp.  104, 
IC5." 


2  22        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

"  Mr.  Jefferson  insisted  that  the  whites  and  the  race 
of  free  blacks  could  not  live  together  equally  free  in 
the  same  government.  He  was  for  the  process  of 
deportation  and  emancipation,  p.  112." 

"  Mr.  Jefferson's  great  hospitality  to  the  English 
and  German  prisoners  located  near  Charlotteville ; 
he  pleads  beautifully  for  their  comfort,  pp.  121,  124." 

"  Jefferson's  eulogy  on  French  manners,  temper- 
ance, architecture,  painting,  and  music,  p.  190." 

"  Striking  reflection  on  Mr.  Jefferson's  plan  of  a 
Rural  Club  in  Virginia;  of  him,  Madison,  Monroe, 
and  Short,  p.  221." 

"  What  a  deceptive  vision  !  Three  of  these  were 
Presidents  of  the  United  States." 

"Mr.  Jefferson,  in  1787,  showed  himself  an  ultra 
Democrat.  He  preferred  the  Indians  without  any 
government,  to  the  governments  of  continental  Europe, 
p.  231." 

"  He  was  in  favor  of  an  occasional  rebellion,  p.  232." 

"  His  eulogy  on  the  Confederation  as  the  best  gov- 
ernment that  ever  existed.  He  thought  it  very  easy 
and  safe  for  Congress  to  coerce  the  States,  p.  242." 

"  His  hostility  to  religion  and  the  study  of  moral 
philosophy,  p.  243." 

"  He  thinks  the  Massachusetts  rebellion  a  good 
thing ;  the  tree  of  liberty  must  be  refreshed  from  time 
to  time  with  blood,  p.  254." 

"The  danger  and  the  actual  apprehensions  in 
Democracies  is  the  tyranny  of  majorities,  p.  278." 

"Temperate  and  able  discussion  of  Mr.  Jefferson, 
and  project  that  no  law,  or  constitution,  or  contract 
binding  after  nineteen  years,  p.  291." 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        223 

"  The  historian  justifies  Mr.  Jefferson's  minuting 
down  and  disclosing  Mr.  Hamilton's  conversation  with 
him  on  the  British  Monarchy,  p.  250." 

"After  the  historian  brings  the  story  down  to  1790, 
when  Mr.  Jefferson  assumed  the  office  of  Secretary  of 
State,  he  becomes  a  devoted  partisan  of  Jefferson's 
politics,  and  sides  with  him  in  all  his  illiberal  and  malig- 
nant attacks  on  Hamilton  and  the  Federalists,  and 
apologizes  for  all  of  Jefferson's  radicalism  and  libels. 
The  volume  hitherto  had  been  well,  and  quite  fair, 
and  impartially  written,  but  I  afterwards  quit  reading 
the  volume  with  perfect  disgust." 

A  glance  at  the  political  condition  of  the  South  at 
this  period  is  useful  at  this  point,  and  this  is  gained 
by  a  perusal  of  the  letters  of  Chancellor  de  Saussure, 
of  South  Carolina,  written  to  Chancellor  Kent.  The 
first  of  these  letters  is  dated  November  4,  1830.  Af- 
ter transmitting  to  his  legal  brother  some  numbers 
of  a  law  journal,  recently  established  at  Columbia, 
and  discussing  one  or  two  points  of  law,  the  Southern 
Chancellor  continues :  — 

Chancellor  de  Saussure  to  CJianccllor  Kent. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  you  take  great  interest  in  what  is 
passing  in  the  South,  as  you  know  and  appreciate  the  ines- 
timable value  of  the  Union.  The  whole  South  is  deeply 
discontented  with  the  measures  of  the  general  government 
in  relation  to  the  tariff  for  protection  of  manufactures  and 
the  prodigal  expenditures  of  the  public  money  on  internal 
improvements,  which  furnishes  the  pretense  for  keeping  up 
the  tariff.     South  Carolina  feels  and  resents   these  abuses 


2  24        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR    KENT 

more  than  any  other  Southern  State,  but  they  all  sympathize 
with  her  and  will  act  with  her  when  all  hope  of  redress  shall 
be  extinguished.  South  Carolina  is  wonderfully  unanimous 
as  to  the  evil,  and  the  necessity  of  persevering  and  ceaseless 
resistance  to  the  oppression  and  injustice. 

There  is,,  however,  a  great  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the 
proper  method  of  resistance,  and  how  long  we  should  for- 
bear before  we  proceed  to  extremities.  All  this  produces 
great  uneasiness  among  our  wisest  and  best  men.  You  may 
be  assured,  however,  that  it  is  a  gross  mistake  to  suppose 
that  any  of  the  eminent  men  who  take  the  lead  have  any 
desire  to  dissolve  the  Union.  They  are  excellent  men  of 
high  principle,  wlio  value  the  Union  at  a  very  high  rate,  but 
who  cannot  consent  to  the  exercise  of  unconstitutional  and 
oppressive  powers,  which  would  soon  transform  this  confed- 
eracy into  a  government  of  unlimited  powers.  To  that  we 
shall  never  yield.  My  days  of  action  are  over  and  I  may 
not  live  to  see  the  conclusion  of  this  dispute.  I  pray  God 
to  preserve  our  country,  free,  united  and  happy. 

One  year  later  he  again  writes :  — 

Chancellor  de  Saussnrc  to  Chancellor  Kent. 

Columbia,  S.  C,  August  4,  1831. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  ...  We  are  still  as  ardent  in  our  poli- 
tics as  ever.  Indeed,  party  politics  have  become  more 
violent  than  ever  I  knew  them,  except  once,  at  the  time  of 
Jefferson's  election  to  the  Presidency.  What  is  to  be  the 
result  cannot  be  foreseen.  The  South  is  exceedingly  unan- 
imous in  the  dislike,  and  even  abhorrence,  of  a  tariff  for 
protection  for  manufacturers  beyond  what  would  result  inci- 
dentally from  a  real  revenue  tariff.  Many  ascribe  the  de- 
pression of  the  price  of  our  produce,  and  consequently  the 
depreciation  of  all  our  property,  wholly  to  the  tariff,  by  its 
direct  and  indirect  action.     Others  ascribe  the  evil  partly 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT       225 

to  that  cause,  and  partly  to  over  production ;   men  take 
their  sides  according  to  their  temperament. 

Some  consider  the  evils  intolerable  and  have  no  hope  of 
a  remedy  and  are  prepared  for  a  secession  from  the  Union, 
great  as  that  evil  would  be,  rather  than  to  submit  to  a  continu- 
ance of  the  present  injustice.  Another  portion  of  the  peo- 
ple are  so  anxious  to  preserve  the  Union  that  they  will  not 
yet  give  up  the  hope  of  relief  from  the  Government.  When 
the  debt  is  paid  there  will  be  no  pretense  for  continuing  a 
tariff,  producing  ten  millions  beyond  the  mere  revenue  wants 
of  the  Government,  and  our  moderates  expect  relief  at  or 
before  that  time.  If  it  be  not  then  obtained  I  believe  South 
Carolina  and  probably  the  Southern  States  will  secede.  This 
would  be  a  great  calamity  to  America  and  would  renew  the 
rivalries,  the  struggles,  and  the  wars  of  the  Grecian  republics 
of  ancient  time  and  of  the  Italian  in  the  middle  ages.  I 
pray  God  in  his  mercy  to  save  us  from  these  calamities. 
This  prayer  is  for  our  children  and  for  our  country,  for  at 
the  age  of  68  years,  you  and  I  have,  I  presume,  nearly  run 
our  course  in  this  world  and  are  preparing  for  a  better. 
May  the  remainder  of  your  days  be  spent  in  ease  and  re- 
pose, and  may  you  and  your  great  services  be  honored  and 
remembered  as  they  deserve  to  be. 

CJiancellor  de  Saiissiire  to  CJiaiicellor  Kent. 

Columbia,  November  17,  1831. 
My  dear  Sir,  —  ...  I  hope  you  enjoy  your  health  and 
spirits,  and  continue  to  possess  the  tnens  sana  in  corpore 
sano  which  you  have  heretofore  enjoyed,  and  have  there- 
fore been  enabled  to  instruct  and  delight  your  contempo- 
raries. We  are  both  of  us  approaching  three  score  and  ten, 
the  usual  term  of  even  robust  and  temperate  men,  when 
we  must  look  for  the  gradual  wearing  out  of  the  machine. 
I  hope  it  may  be  gently,  and  that  we  may  be  prepared  for 

IS 


226        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

the  great  change  when  we  have  to  render  an  account  of  our 
stewardship. 

The  times  seem  to  be  out  of  joint  both  in  Europe  and 
in  this  country.  The  fermentation  in  the  pubhc  mind  in 
Europe  is  very  great.  It  is  really  the  struggle  of  opposing 
principles,  of  liberalism  against  despotism.  What  is  to  be 
the  issue,  God  only,  in  his  infinite  wisdom,  can  foresee.  I 
am  inclined  to  believe  that  the  liberal  spirit,  which  is  that 
of  the  age,  will  prevail ;  but  the  transition  may  be  through 
disorder  and  blood.  And  there  is  a  good  deal  of  ferment 
alive  in  the  minds  of  our  citizens  in  the  Southern  and  some 
of  the  Southwestern  States.  They  will  never  be  reconciled 
to  a  tariff  for  protection.  And  though  the  moderation  of 
many  of  our  citizens  restrains  the  violence  of  the  great 
mass  for  the  present,  that  restraint  cannot  be  enforced  if 
the  redress  sought  be  not  obtained  in  a  reasonable  time. 
At  all  events,  if  the  tariff  be  not  reduced  to  a  liberal  revenue 
standard,  when  the  national  debt  is  paid,  the  violent  men  will 
prevail ;  and  I  fear  for  the  safety  of  the  Union.  The  disso- 
lution of  that  holy  ark  of  our  safety  would  be  the  signal  for 
all  sorts  of  calamities,  foreign  or  domestic,  which  God  in  his 
mercy  avert !  Do  not  believe  that  it  is  a  mere  faction,  work- 
ing to  destroy  the  Union  for  personal  aggrandizement.  Many 
of  our  ablest  men  are  of  opinion  that  a  tariff  for  protection 
is  oppressive,  unequal,  and  unjust,  and  contrary  to  the  spirit 
of  the  Constitution,  and  not  to  be  endured  if  the  remedy 
be  not  applied  by  Congress.  Many  of  us  (for  I  am  of 
that  number)  continue  to  hope  for  redress,  and  deprecate 
extreme  measures  till  all  hope  is  extinguished. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        227 


IX 


As  Judge  Kent  himself  notes,  he  did  not  possess 
forensic  talent,  nor  was  he  ever  distinguished 
in  contentions  at  the  Bar.  He  spoke  through  his  pen, 
and,  upon  the  few  occasions  on  which  he  made  public 
addresses,  he  spoke  entirely  from  his  notes.  He  was  a 
graceful,  eloquent,  and  interesting  speaker.  At  a  meet- 
ing of  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  on  Decem- 
ber 6,  1828,  of  which  society  he  was  the  president,  he 
made  the  annual  address.  His  memory  at  that  time 
went  back  to  a  former  generation,  and  his  characteri- 
zations of  some  of  the  men  of  the  past  were  of  deep 
interest  to  his  auditors.  On  Alexander  Hamilton  he 
pronounced  a  magnificent  eulogium.  Of  him  he  said  : 
"  His  transcendent  services  to  the  nation  are  sufficient 
to  render  his  name  immortal."  So  greatly  did  he  ad- 
mire Hamilton  living,  and  so  deeply  did  he  revere  his 
memory  for  years  after  his  death,  that  it  would  seem 
that  language  failed  to  express  the  depth  of  his  inner 
feeling.  When,  in  1832,  the  widow  of  General  Ham- 
ilton, who  was  also  the  daughter  of  General  Schuyler, 
applied  to  the  Chancellor  for  some  of  his  reminis- 
cences and  impressions  of  her  husband,  he  replied  in 
a  lengthy  monograph,  which  might  almost  be  called 
a  biography  in  itself  This  historical  sketch  of  Alex- 
ander Hamilton  was  divided  into  three  parts.     In  the 


2  28        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

first  he  related  his  first  personal  knowledge  of  the 
subject,  and  brought  the  narrative  down  to  the  call  for 
the  Constitutional  Convention  in  1787.  The  second 
discussed  Hamilton's  services  in  relation  to  the  origin 
and  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  The  third 
considered  in  considerable  detail  his  subsequent  life. 

"  I  knew  General  Hamilton's  character  well,"  he 
says  in  closing  this  discourse.  "  His  life  and  actions 
for  the  course  of  twenty-two  years  had  engaged  and 
fixed  my  attention.  They  were  often  passing  under 
my  eye  and  observation.  For  the  last  six  years  of 
his  life  he  was  arguing  causes  before  me.  I  have 
been  sensibly  struck,  in  a  thousand  instances,  with 
his  habitual  reverence  for  truth,  his  candor,  his  ardent 
attachment  to  civil  liberty,  his  indignation  at  oppres- 
sion of  every  kind,  his  abhorrence  of  every  semblance 
of  fraud,  his  reverence  for  justice,  his  sound  legal 
principles,  drawn  by  a  clear  and  logical  deduction 
from  the  purest  Christian  ethics  and  from  the  very 
foundations  of  all  rational  and  practical  jurisprudence. 
He  was  blessed  with  a  very  amiable,  generous,  tender, 
and  charitable  disposition,  and  he  had  the  most  art- 
less simplicity  of  any  man  I  ever  knew.  It  was  im- 
possible not  to  love  as  well  as  respect  and  admire 
him.  He  was  perfectly  disinterested.  The  selfish 
principle,  that  infirmity  too  often  of  great  as  well  as 
of  little  minds,  seemed  never  to  have  reached  him. 
It  was  entirely  incompatible  with  the  purity  of  his 
taste  and  the  grandeur  of  his  ambition.  Everything 
appeared  to  be  at  once  extinguished  when  it  came  in 
competition  with  his  devotion  to  his  country's  welfare 
and  glory.     He  was  a  most  faithful  friend  to  the  cause 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        229 

of  civil  liberty  throughout  the  world,  but  he  was  a 
still  greater  friend  to  truth  and  justice,"  ^ 

Upon  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  his  graduation 
Chancellor  Kent  was  invited  to  deliver  the  annual 
address  before  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society  of  Yale 
College,  with  Edward  Everett  as  his  alternate.  This 
invitation  was  accepted,  and  the  address  was  delivered 
September  13,  183 1.  Of  the  manner  in  which  this 
address  impressed  his  contemporaries  one  may  judge 
from  the  letter  which  follows  from  the  pen  of  Chief- 
Justice  Story  of  Massachusetts,  with  whom  Chancellor 
Kent  maintained  a  friendship  of  years. 

Chief-Justice  Story  to  CJiaiicellor  Kent. 

Cambridge,  Oct.  25,  1831. 
Dear  Sir,  —  I  should  have  long  since  thanked  you  for 
the  present  of  your  excellent  <E>  B  K  address  if  my  absence 
on  my  circuit  duties  and  my  continued  labors  since  my  re- 
turn here,  had  not  interrupted  my  purpose.  I  have  read 
your  discourse  with  the  highest  relish,  and  partake  of  the  en- 
thusiasm with  which  your  mind  kindles  at  the  reminiscences 
of  former  times.  I  know  not  how  it  is,  but  you  carry  me  a 
voluntary  captive  in  all  your  labors,  whether  in  law,  or  in 
literature.  You  throw  over  everything  which  you  touch  a 
fresh  and  mellow  coloring,  which  elevates  while  it  warms, 
and  convinces  us  that  the  picture  is  truth  and  the  artist  a 
master.  I  should  dare  to  say  this  to  few  persons,  lest  they 
should  suspect  that  I  placed  little  value  on  my  words. 
But  you  know  that  to  repress  this  tribute  would  be  to  sup- 
press a  praise  to  which  you  have  an  unquestioned  and  an 
unquestionable  title. 

A  passage  from  this  address,  in  which  Chancellor 
Kent  extolled  the  study  of  the  classics,  is  of  especial 
^  Vide  Appendix. 


230        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

interest,  as  bearing  testimony  to  the  inestimable  bene- 
fit which  he  beheved  that  their  study  had  been  to 
him  in  his  struggle  for  success  in  his  chosen  profes- 
sion. After  eulogizing  the  literature  of  the  ancients, 
as  "  eminent  for  sound  judgment  and  severe  simpli- 
city," he  continued :  — 

"  During  the  time  spent  in  the  acquisition  of  the 
learned  languages,  the  attention  of  the  student  is  di- 
rected to  the  purest  classical  writers  ;  and,  while  he  is 
becoming  master  of  the  tongue,  he  is,  at  the  same 
time,  receiving  his  best  and  most  lasting  impressions 
of  the  general  literature  and  beautiful  productions  of 
the  ancients." 

On  the  twenty-first  day  of  May,  1832,  Washington 
Irving,  after  an  extended  residence  abroad,  arrived  at 
New  York  on  his  homeward  journey.  He  was  cor- 
dially welcomed  by  his  friends  and  admirers,  who 
tendered  to  him  a  public  dinner.  This  was  given, 
two  days  later,  at  City  Hotel,  New  York,  Chancellor 
Kent  presiding.  Mr.  Irving  was  exceedingly  nervous 
throughout  the  evening.  "  I  look  forward  to  it  with 
awe,"  he  had  written  to  his  brother  Peter,  "  and  shall 
be  heartily  glad  when  it  is  over."  His  apprehensions, 
however,  were  groundless,  although  three  hundred 
were  present.  "The  occasion,"  says  Irving's  bio- 
grapher,^ "  was  rare,  the  homage  spontaneous,  the 
hilarity  inspiring."  At  the  removal  of  the  cloth  the 
toastmaster  offered  the  first  toast  of  the  evening: 
"  Literature,    Commerce,    and   the    Fine   Arts,    their 

1  Life  and  Letters  of  VVashini^tott  Irving,  by  Pierre  M,  Irving, 
Kinderhook  ed.,  ii.  225. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        231 

union,  the  glory  of  our  parent  land,  soon  destined 
to  adorn  our  own."  To  this  toast  Chancellor  Kent 
responded  in  these  words :  — 

"  We  have  met  to  express  to  a  distinguished  fellow- 
citizen,  our  gratitude  for  the  exalted  rank  to  which  he 
has  raised  the  literary  reputation  of  this  country ;  to 
testify  our  admiration  of  his  genius,  and  to  show  that 
we  cordially  partake  of  the  kindly  and  generous  sym- 
pathies which  pervade,  and  have  been  diffused  by,  his 
works.  The  mention  of  this  subject  calls  up  a  crowd 
of  associations  and  recollections,  which  even  ade- 
quately to  refer  to  would  carry  me  far  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  time  and  the  occasion,  but  on  which  my 
feelings  compel  me  for  a  few  moments  to  linger. 
When  the  gentleman  alluded  to  commenced  his  bril- 
liant career  (which  we  trust  is  far  from  its  termi- 
nation) by  a  display  of  the  wit  and  humor,  the  keen 
satire  and  sprightly  portraits  which  distinguished  his 
earliest  productions  (and  in  which  it  is  understood  he 
was  assisted  by  a  kindred  genius),^  we  had  scarcely 
any  literary  character  as  a  nation,  though  we  are 
entitled  to  claim  the  exhibition  of  a  due  share  of 
national  energy  and  enterprise.  Our  taste  and  man- 
ners were  greatly  in  need  of  improvement.  The  ad- 
mirable work  to  which  I  refer  partook  largely  of  a 
dramatic  character,  and,  being  armed  with  wit  and 
power  of  the  highest,  it  undertook  to  chastise  folly, 
correct  faults  of  taste,  reform  bad  manners,  and  mend 
the  heart.  The  effort  was  well  received,  and  the  pub- 
lic judgment  had  no  reason  in  any  wise  to  be  offended. 

^  "  Geoffrey  Crayon,  Gent." 


232        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

No  composition  of  the  kind  was  ever  more  distinctly 
stamped  with  the  impression  of  sterling  morals  and 
invariable  good  feeling,  or  more  free  from  envy,  hatred, 
malice,  and  all  uncharitableness.  The  work  even 
abounded  with  touches  of  sentiment  and  pathos,  and 
with  fictitious  scenes  calculated  to  awaken  the  deepest 
sympathy. 

"  The  legend  of  the  first  colonization  of  this  city 
and  of  the  adjacent  shores  must,  at  this  moment,  be 
vivid  in  the  memories  of  us  all,  —  such  a  mock  heroic 
history,  written  in  the  finest  strain  of  burlesque  grav- 
ity, and  of  witty  and  ludicrous  description,  and  of 
playful,  but  pointed,  satire  and  ridicule.  It  has  rarely, 
perhaps  never,  been  surpassed,  not  even  by  Rabelais 
or  Swift,  in  its  power,  spirit,  and  effect.  It  was  at  the 
same  time,  written  with  so  much  good  temper  and 
humanity  that  there  is  nothing  in  it  justly  chargeable 
with  a  tendency  to  make  one  worthy  man  its  foe. 

"  The  materials  of  both  those  satirical  productions 
were  of  native  growth.  They  partook  of  no  trans- 
atlantic flavor.  They  were  original  and  inimitable 
creations  of  American  genius,  in  all  its  freshness,  full- 
ness, and  strength,  and  solely  exerted  upon  American 
topics.  But  the  mind  produced  powers  of  thought 
and  invention  amidst  the  beautiful  scenes  of  English 
rural  life  and  the  magnificent  remains  of  Gothic 
grandeur.  In  the  sketches  and  essays  of  Geoffrey 
Crayon,  we  have  a  series  of  liberal,  moral,  and  pathetic 
reflections,  interwoven  with  legendary  tales  of  fascinat- 
ing interest,  and  adorned  with  the  utmost  purity  of 
taste  and  elegance  of  style.  Many  of  the  stories  pos- 
sess the  charm  of  the  finest  fictions  in  the  English 


MEMOIRS  OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        233 

classics.  The  liberality,  the  gentleness,  the  philan- 
thropy, the  taste,  the  sound  judgment  and  varied  ac- 
complishments of  the  writer,  seemed  at  once  to  have 
surprised  and  delighted  the  English  reader.  Those 
sketches  were  attended  with  magical  effects.  Arro- 
gance stood  rebuked  and  ashamed,  and  prejudice  was 
subdued,  and  succeeded  by  admiration  and  love. 

"  We  rejoiced  to  behold  one  of  our  own  native  sons 
rival,  on  English  ground,  the  grace  and  elegance,  the 
pathos  and  lofty  morals  of  Addison,  Goldsmith,  and 
McKenzie ;  we  shared  equally  with  our  transatlantic 
brethren  in  the  pleasures  afforded  by  his  graphic  de- 
scriptions, and  hung  with  an  equal  intensity  over  the 
description  of  some  of  his  matchless  English  scenes 
and  incidents.  But  we  are  free  to  admit  that  we  took 
a  far  deeper  interest  in  those  enchanting  visions  which 
brought  us  back  to  the  borders  of  the  romantic  Hud- 
son ;  '  to  the  blue  hills  of  our  own  country,  which  we 
love  so  dearly ; '  to  the  '  deep  mountain  glens  '  of  the 
Kaattskills,  and  to  the  '  twilight  superstitions '  of  the 
Sleepy  Hollow. 

"Through  all  the  writings  of  our  distinguished 
countryman,  even  in  his  earlier  and  sprightlier  pro- 
ductions, we  meet  with  occasional  sentiments  of  high 
and  grave  import,  the  genuine  growth  of  ardent  feel- 
ing which  go  directly  to  the  heart.  Nothing  can  be 
more  soothing  and  gratifying  to  meditative  minds  than 
such  pensive,  chaste,  and  mellowed  reflections,  arising 
from  views  of  autumnal  scenery,  the  ruins  of  ancient 
art,  and  the  monuments  of  departed  greatness. 

"  The  gentleman  who  favored  the  world  with  these 
productions,    not   content   with   enjoying  the  admi- 


234        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

ration  of  the  republic  of  letters  to  a  very  eminent 
degree,  was  in  the  meantime  busy  in  earning  for 
himself  a  title  to  a  still  higher  niche  in  the  temple  of 
fame.  Having  access  to  original  and  fresh  documents 
relating  to  the  life  of  Christopher  Columbus,  he  was 
encouraged  and  enabled  to  undertake  and  execute  a 
great  historical  work,  and  on  a  subject  the  most  rich 
in  details,  and  the  most  magnificent  in  its  results,  of 
any  that  ever  employed  the  pen  of  the  historian.  He 
brought  to  the  task  all  his  great  and  diversified 
powers.  His  materials  were  selected  with  judgment, 
studied  with  diligence,  arranged  with  skill,  exhibited 
with  fidelity,  polished  with  taste  and  recommended  by 
finished  specimens  of  a  graceful,  flowing,  and  dignified 
composition.  The  discovery  of  America  was  essen- 
tially a  domestic  theme.  Though  the  enterprise  was 
begun  in  Europe,  it  was  consummated  on  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic.  The  settlement  of  this  New  World  seems 
to  be  a  theme  peculiarly  appropriate  to  the  pen  of  an 
American  writer,  who  would  naturally  feel  and  ap- 
preciate, most  deeply  and  justly,  the  inestimable 
value  of  the  discovery,  and  the  mighty  consequences 
of  the  establishment  of  great  nations  on  this  continent, 
with  their  language  and  institutions,  their  freedom  and 
religion,  their  arts  and  sciences  spreading  themselves 
over  its  surface.  The  choice  was  most  propitious, 
and  the  '  History  of  the  Life  and  Voyages  of  Colum- 
bus '  will  probably  become  the  standard  work  on  that 
subject  through  all  succeeding  ages.  It  equals  the 
most  distinguished  historical  compositions,  not  only 
in  the  dignity  of  the  subject,  but  in  the  judgment, 
skill,  spirit,  and  felicity  of  its  execution. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT       235 

"This  eminent  historian,  honored  and  beloved 
abroad,  now  returns  with  joy  to  the  home  of  his 
youth,  and  to  tlie  beloved  companions  and  scenes  of 
his  earliest  glory. 

"Let  us  drink  to  —  Our  Illustrious  Guest;  thrice 
welcome  to  his  native  land  !  " 

The  Chancellor  was,  beyond  doubt,  gratified  at 
receiving,  a  few  days  later,  a  word  of  commendation 
from  his  friend  Daniel  Webster :  — 

Daniel  Webster  to  Chancellor  Kent. 

Washington,  June  5,  1832. 
My  dear  Sir,  —  I  have  just  opened  the  newspaper  and 
read  the  account  of  Mr.  Irving's  dinner,  and  your  speech 
thereat;  and  I  resolved  forthwith  to  write  you  one  line, 
for  the  purpose  of  saying  that  the  speech  is  a  delightful 
little  thing,  just,  sweet,  affectionate.  When  I  read  the 
paragraph  in  which  you  prefer  what  relates  to  the  blue 
hills  and  mountain  glens  of  our  own  country  to  sketches 
of  foreign  scenes  and  foreign  countries,  I  wanted  to  seize 
your  hand  and  give  it  a  hearty  shake  of  sympathy.  Heaven 
bless  this  goodly  land  of  our  fathers  !  Its  rulers  and  its 
people  may  commit  a  thousand  follies,  yet  Heaven  bless  it ! 
Next  to  the  friends  beloved  of  my  heart,  those  same  hills 
and  glens,  and  native  woods  and  native  streams,  will  have 
my  last  earthly  recollections  !     Duke  et  decorinn  est,  etc. 

In  an  address  delivered  before  the  Law  Association 
of  the  city  of  New  York,  October  21,  1836,  Chancellor 
Kent  spoke  in  an  impressive  manner  of  the  responsi- 
bilities and  duties  of  the  legal  profession.  "  The 
responsibilities  attached  to  the  profession  and  prac- 
tice of  the  law,"   he  said,   "  are  of  the  most  momen- 


236        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

tous  character.  Its  members,  by  their  vocation, 
ought  to  be  fitted  for  the  great  duties  of  pubHc  Hfe, 
and  they  may  be  said  to  be  ex  officio  natural  guardians 
of  the  laws,  and  to  stand  sentinels  over  the  constitu- 
tions and  liberties  of  the  country.  I  know  of  no 
duty,  next  to  the  worship  and  obedience  which  we 
owe  to  Our  Father  which  Art  in  Heaven,  that  is  more 
imperative  in  its  requisitions,  and  more  delightful  in 
the  performance,  than  that  which  the  municipal  law 
of  the  land  requires  of  its  various  professors.  .  .  . 
The  cultivation  and  practice  of  the  law  is,  and  ought 
to  be,  a  sure  road  to  personal  prosperity  and  to 
political  eminence  and  fame,  provided  the  members 
of  the  Bar  render  themselves  worthy  of  public  con- 
fidence, by  their  skill  and  industry,  their  knowledge, 
integrity,  and  honor,  their  public  spirit  and  manly 
deportment,  their  purity,  moderation,  and  wisdom." 

Charles  Sumner  to  Chancellor  Kent. 

January  i,  1837. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  gladly  seize  the  opportunity  of  Judge 
Story's  transit  through  New  York  to  thank  you  for  the 
present  of  your  beautiful  and  instructive  address  delivered 
before  the  Law  Association.  I  have  read  it  with  the  greatest 
interest,  and  feel  indebted  to  you  for  the  elevated  views 
which  you  have  given  of  the  study  of  the  law,  and  the 
sketches  of  some  of  its  expired  lights  in  your  own  State. 
No  lawyer  or  law  student  could  quit  it  without  feeling 
prouder  than  he  was  before  of  his  chosen  pursuit,  and 
being  stimulated  to  new  labors,  in  short,  without  attaching 
himself  with  new  zeal  to  the  single  talisman  of  success, 
study. 

VVhen  I  think  of  the  good  which  you  have  done,  in  pro- 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        237 

moting  the  study  of  jurisprudence,  by  the  publication  of 
your  Commentaries  and  of  this  address,  and  by  your  high 
example,  —  I  say  nothing  of  the  sweet  influence  of  your  social 
character  and  the  important  bearings  of  your  long  judicial 
life,  —  I  cannot  but  envy  you  the  feeling  which  you  must 
enjoy.  The  mighty  tribute  of  gratitude  is  silently  offered  to 
you  from  every  student  of  the  law  in  our  whole  country. 
There  is  not  one  who  has  found  his  toilsome  way  cheered 
and  delighted  by  the  companionship  of  your  labors,  who 
would  not  speak  as  I  do,  if  he  had  the  privilege  of  address- 
ing you. 

The  interest  which  Mr.  Kent  took  in  all  kinds  of 
literary  work  was  surprising,  and  the  care  with  which 
he  read,  abstracted,  and  noted  in  each  volume  the 
points  which  most  interested  him,  or  which  caught 
his  attention,  is  indicative  of  his  studious  temperament 
and  indomitable  persistent  industry.  In  almost  every 
work  of  his  library  the  blank  leaves  at  the  beginning 
and  end  of  each  volume  are  filled  with  notes,  extracts, 
and  references  to  other  works.  He  literally  read  with 
a  pen  in  his  hand,  and  every  interesting  or  disputed 
point  was  made  the  occasion  for  very  full  references 
and  citation.  The  zeal  with  which  he  read  and 
studied  his  books  is  likewise  shown  forth,  as  already 
suggested,  in  almost  every  one  of  the  many  letters 
which,  throughout  the  passage  of  the  years,  he  wrote 
to  his  brother,  Moss  Kent.  As  early  as  August,  1790, 
he  wrote :  — 

James  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

I  have  finished,  within  a  few  pages,  Tully  De  Oratore.  I 
consider  that  as  a  great  achievement  for  this  summer,  espe- 
cially as  I  have  had  no  translation.     I  suppose  him  harder 


238        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

than  Livy,  as  one  is  only  narration  and  the  other  a  didactic 
work.  I  master  him  so  easily  that  I  read  six  pages  every 
morning  and  also  one  hundred  lines  in  Homer.  I  am 
in  the  fifth  Book  of  the  Iliad,  where  Diomed  makes  such 
a  brilliant  figure,  but  what  takes  away  from  all  his  credit 
is  that  he  is  assisted  by  Minerva.  ...  I  have  been  read- 
ing the  works  of  Macchiavelli,  his  "  History  of  Florence." 
His  "  Prince  "  and  his  political  discourses  on  the  first  decade 
of  Livy  are  the  chief  works  by  which  his  fame  has  been 
celebrated  with  such  various  colors.  His  History  is  an 
excellent  thing  and  his  style  nervous  and  simple.  His 
"  Prince  "  is  a  most  singular  performance  and,  taken  literally 
(and  we  have  no  evidence  that  he  was  ironical),  contains 
the  most  wicked  and  abominable  maxims.  His  discourses 
are  profoundly  written,  and  his  precepts  illustrated  by  facts 
drawn  from  Livy  and  from  the  Florentine  annals,  so  that, 
tho'  I  don't  know  what  to  make  of  "  The  Prince,"  I  view 
him  as  one  of  the  greatest  political  reasoners  on  facts  and 
one  of  the  greatest  philosophers  of  modern  times,  if  not  of 
any  times. 

Upon  the  fly-leaf  of  one  of  his  volumes  of  "  Oeuvres 
de  L'Abbe  de  Malby  "  (Paris,  1792)  he  notes:  — 

"The  Abbe  Malby  appears  to  have  drunk  of  the 
whole  cup  of  modern  French  Philosophy  and  Democ- 
racy, and  to  be  as  intoxicated  as  any  of  their  writers. 
The  same  eternal  declamation  against  government  and 
distinctions,  the  same  puerile  panegyric  on  equality 
and  the  rights  of  man,  pervade  alike  all  the  French 
philosophers  for  the  last  fifty  years,  and  have,  no 
doubt,  essentially  fostered  and  incited  the  dreadful  and 
devouring  tempest  of  the  French  Revolution.  The 
Abbe  in  this  work,  in  the  study  of  history,  appears 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        239 

to  be  a  wild  and  contemptible  philosopher.  He  dares 
not  indulge  his  wishes  for  full  equality,  but  is  at  all 
events  for  the  sumptuary  and  agrarian  laws." 

In  the  Chancellor's  copy  of  Mary  Wollstonecraft's 

"Vindication    of  the    Rights  of  Woman"    (1792), 

he  penciled  quite  an  extended  biographical  note,  to 

which  he  appended  this  criticism  of  the  book,  which 

he  had  evidently  perused  with  great  care :  — 

"  The  fundamental  principle  on  which  the  w^hole 
argument  of  this  work  is  founded  is  that,  except  in 
affairs  of  love,  sexual  distinctions  ought  to  be  disre- 
garded, and  women  considered  in  the  light  of  rational 
creatures.  The  author  discovers  great  energy  of 
mind,  vigor  of  fancy,  and  command  of  language,  but 
several  of  her  opinions  are  fanciful,  and  some  of  her 
projects  romantic.  Mr.  Holcroft,  in  his  '  Anna  St. 
Ives '  (who  in  her  leading  features  is  a  mere  child  of 
the  imagination),  has  the  same  doctrine,  that  'mind 
has  no  sex ;  '  that  woman  is  not  inferior  to  man ; 
that,  in  a  perfect  state  of  society,  no  domestic  appro- 
priation of  separate  property  can  subsist,  but  all 
would  combine,  in  one  universal  effort  of  mind,  to 
dispel  error  and  propagate  Truth.  This  is  the  gen- 
uine Godwinian  philosophy." 

"  I  think  you  took  up  Stuart's  '  View  of  Society,'  " 
he  wrote  to  his  brother,  in  January,  1795.  "  It  has 
been  of  great  use  to  me  in  my  researches  into  the 
genius  of  the  feudal  policy.  If  I  am  not  greatly  mis- 
taken he  has  not  only  investigated  deeply  the  pages  of 
Tacitus,  but  caught  his  fire  and  energy.     He  is,  in  my 


240        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

judgment,  one  of  the  most  acute,  spirited,  and  elegant 
writers  that  has  ever  adorned  the  temple  of  fame.  I 
therefore  wish  you  to  set  yourself  immediately  to  read 
him  and  inform  me  shortly  of  the  success  of  every 
part  of  your  various  literary  and  other  pursuits." 
Again,  in  September,  1796,  he  writes:  — 

Chancellor  Kent  to  Moss  Kent. 

Novels  are  pleasing  to  me  in  my  leisure  hours.  I  have 
purchased  since  you  have  been  gone,  Fielding's  "Joseph 
Andrews,"  Smollett's  "  Roderick  Random,"  "  Peregrine 
Pickle,"  "  Count  Faltham,"  and  "  Lancelot  Graves,"  Defoe's 
"  Robinson  Crusoe,"  and  Brook's  "  Fool  of  Quality."  These 
are  works  of  the  first  impression  for  wit,  humor,  the  pathetic, 
and  knowledge  of  man.  They  are  classical  productions  of 
the  kind.  No  writer  that  ever  lived  was  superior  to  Field- 
ing. He  was  a  man  of  wonderful  talents  and  inimitable 
humor.  I  now  own  all  his  works,  and  have  just  entered  on 
the  eighth  volume  of  Richardson's  "  Clarissa."  You  will  see 
just  characters  of  Fielding  and  Richardson  in  the  N.  A. 
Review  for  1781,  in  the  introduction,  page  25,  I  think, 
and  where  you  will  find  the  most  elegant  and  critically  just 
reviews  of  English  literature  under  Anne  and  George  that 
I  ever  met  with. 

In  November,  1804,  having  been  obliged  to  leave 
home  for  a  time,  for  a  session  of  court  at  New  York, 
he  writes  to  his  wife,  at  the  conclusion  of  the  voyage : 

"  This  morning  wc  found  ourselves  safely  and  hap- 
pily at  the  dock.  I  read  on  the  voyage  *  The  Italian,' 
and  melted  at  the  tender  and  awful  scenes  of  her  soul- 
inspiring  and  sublime  pen.     Mrs.  Radclifife's  ^  writings, 

1  Mrs.  Ann  Radcliffe,  novelist,  born  in  London,  July  9,  1764,  died 
February  7,  1823.     "The  Italian  "was  published  in  1797. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        241 

no  less  than  the  keen  observations  and  the  remarks 
of  my  wife,  make  me  bow  to  the  equal  talents  and 
genius  of  female  minds." 

On  the  fly-leaf  of  an  old  edition  of  Shakespeare  it 
is  noted :  — 

"In  1804  I  read  Shakespeare.  The  Tempest  is 
inimitable ;  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona  is  interesting ; 
Merry  Wives  of  Windsor  attractive  from  the  wit  and 
numerous  disasters  of  Falstaff;  Twelfth  Night,  very 
indifferent;  Measure  for  Measure,  and  Much  Ado 
about  Nothing  abound  in  characters  well  drawn,  and 
in  interesting  incident.  The  second  is  the  best  and 
has  most  of  the  comic  humor;  Midsummer-Night's 
Dream,  and  Love's  Labor  Lost  are  to  me  not  worth 
reading ;  Merchant  of  Venice  has  an  exquisitely  drawn 
miser  in  Shylock  the  Jew ;  As  you  Like  it  is  admir- 
able; it  is  serious,  pathetic,  elegant,  and  sprightly. 
The  character  of  Jaques  is  drawn  with  the  finest 
touches  of  genius ;  All 's  Well  that  Ends  Well  is  not 
worth  the  reading;  but  in  The  Taming  of  the 
Shrew  the  characters  of  Petruchio  and  Kate  are 
highly  and  humorously  drawn ;  Winter's  Tale  is 
extravagant;  it  embraces  a  whole  generation,  say 
twenty  years,  and  introduces  time  to  annihilate  it. 
It  runs  from  Bohemia  to  Sicily,  and  violates  all  the 
laws  of  probability.  It  restores  a  marble  statue  to 
life,  and  yet  it  is,  on  the  whole,  pleasing,  interesting, 
and  pathetic. 

"  In  King  John,  the  grief  of  Constantia,  the  gen- 
erosity and  bravery  of  the  Bastard,  the  dialogues 
between  Hubert  and  the  King  and  Hubert  and  Arthur 

16 


242        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR    KENT 

show  the  master  hand  of  Shakespeare ;  Macbeth  is 
matchless ;  The  Comedy  of  Errors  is,  I  think,  below 
Shakespeare's  genius.  The  whole  harmony  and  inven- 
tion consist  of  four  persons  looking  alike,  and  con- 
sequently mistaking  each  other  and  acting  at  cross 
purposes.  Richard  the  Second  is  indifferent,  — 
much  bustle,  but  little  dignity  of  sentiment  or  con- 
trol of  the  heart.  Henry  the  Fourth,  the  first  and 
second  are  admirable,  the  first  part  by  far  the  best, 
and  will  be  ever  interesting  for  those  great  and  ad- 
mirably drawn  characters,  Prince  of  Wales,  Hotspur, 
and  Falstaff.  Henry  the  Fifth  is  a  distinguished 
picture  of  action,  bustle,  and  battle.  Henry  the 
Sixth,  the  three  parts  degenerate  into  dull  narration, 
and  it  is  doubted  if  Shakespeare  wrote  it.  Richard 
the  Third  has  some  tender  scenes  and  some  noble 
description,  but  it  is  too  unnatural  and  horrible  in 
many  parts.  Henry  the  Eighth  is  a  distinguished 
tragedy  for  the  pathetic,  and  tender,  and  excellent 
character  of  Katharine,  and  the  awful  fall  of  Wolsey. 
Troilus  and  Cressida  is  very  indifferent.  Timon  of 
Athens  is  a  good  picture  of  faithless  and  ungrateful 
flatterers.  Coriolanus  has  much  bustle  and  old  Roman 
obstinacy  and  pride,  but  it  does  not  strike  me  much. 
Julius  Caesar  is  highly  interesting,  from  the  grandeur 
of  the  story,  and  the  impressive  speeches  of  the  prin- 
cipal actors.  It  is  a  play  of  the  closet,  and  not  of  the 
stage.     Antony  and  Cleopatra,  I  think  nothing  of" 

In  conclusion  he  notes,  quoting  from  Drake:  "It 
may  be  justly  affirmed  that  many  of  Shakespeare's 
plays  are  barely  tolerable,  out  of  deference  to  the 
excellences  of  his  happier  productions." 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        243 

Among  the  books  of  Chancellor  Kent  are  found 
several  volumes  of  "  American  Annals,"  by  Abiel 
Holmes,  the  father  of  the  late  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes  (Cambridge,  1805).  In  one  of  these  volumes 
the  Chancellor  noted  :  — 

"  Dr.  Holmes,  the  author  of  these  volumes,  died  at 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  June  4,  1837,  aged  73.  I  was 
acquainted  with  him  at  college.  He  married  the 
youngest  daughter  of  President  Stiles.  I  was  at  his 
house  in  August,  1823.  He  was  an  excellent  man 
and  I  loved  him  much  when  we  were  at  college, 
from  June,  1779,  to  1781.  He  was  pastor  of  a  church 
in  Georgia  from  1785  to  179 1.  In  1792  he  was  a 
settled  minister  at  Cambridge,  where  he  resided  the 
residue  of  his  life.  As  annals  of  the  United  States 
this  book  displays  great  industry  and  research,  and  is 
exceedingly  valuable ;  but  as  American  annals  at 
large,  it  is  meager  and  miserably  imperfect.  Few  of 
the  Spanish  writers  have  been  consulted,  those  few 
only  in  translations,  and  Herrera,  the  most  important 
of  all,  in  a  very  mutilated  one.  The  author's  collec- 
tion of  French  authorities  is  also  equally  incomplete, 
and  of  the  many  important  works  that  the  ex-Jesuits 
have  bequeathed  to  the  world,  not  one  appears  in 
the  catalogue.  He  ought  to  have  begun  his  history 
with  the  first  voyage  of  Cabot,  and  not  with  Colum- 
bus, whose  history  is  as  well  known  as  that  of 
Noah." 

On  a  fly-leaf  of  the  Chancellor's  copy  of  William 
Gifford's  translation  of  the  Satire  of  Decimus  Junius 
Juvenalis  (Philadelphia,  1803)  are  these  notes:  — 


244        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

"In  1807,  Mr.  Hodgson's  translation  of  Juvenal 
appeared.  No  single  classic  has  been  more  frequently- 
translated.  The  Edinburgh  Review  (vol.  xii.,  p.  501) 
lowers  a  good  deal  the  high  character  generally 
given  to  the  Roman  satirist.  They  say  he  writes 
like  a  reformed  rake,  and  like  one  who  has  lost  the 
delicacy  of  moral  taste.  They  admit  he  is  a  fit  study 
for  the  antiquary  and  the  philosopher,  but  he  ought 
to  be  a  sealed  book  to  all  but  profound  scholars. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Monthly  Review  (vol.  Iv.) 
speaks  thus  of  Juvenal :  '  His  masculine  genius,  his 
high-toned  morality,  his  noble  contempt  for  meanness, 
and  his  irresistible  indignation  against  vice,  place  him 
in  the  fore  rank  of  writers  formed  for  the  improve- 
ment and  correction  of  man.' 

"  There  is  great  truth  in  most  of  the  remarks  of 
the  Edinburgh  Review  and  the  gross  obscenity  and 
disgusting  filth  do  undoubtedly  disgrace  the  pages  of 
Juvenal  and  denote  a  pervcrseness  of  taste.  But  I 
think  that  his  masterly  delineation  and  deep  and 
tragic  intonation  renders  his  moral  most  solemn  and 
impressive.  The  peculiar  characteristics  of  Juvenal, 
his  dignity,  his  vehemence,  his  profound  horror  of 
vice,  his  bursts  of  uncontrollable  indignation,  are 
happily  and  almost  uniformly  preserved  in  the  trans- 
lation of  Mr.  Gifford.  It  unites,  in  no  common 
degree,  fidelity  with  spirit,  and  is,  with  a  few  excep- 
tions, the  best  version  of  a  classic  in  our  language. 
They  say  that  all  the  translations  of  the  tenth  Satire 
are  thrown  in  the  background  by  Johnson's  imitation, 
and  that  management  can  reconcile  them  to  the  de- 
testable grossness  of  the  sixth. 


MEMOIRS  OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        245 

*'  The  Baviad  of  Mr.  Gifford,  an  imitation  of  the 
first  Satire  of  Persius,  first  detected  and  exposed  the 
absurdities  and  effeminate  conceits  of  the  Delia  Crusca 
school.  Merry  and  Mrs.  Robinson,  under  the  names 
of  Lorenzo  and  Laura  Maria,  bade  fair  to  banish 
Shakespeare,  Dryden,  and  Otway,  when  Gifford  laid 
them  open  to  universal  contempt  and  ridicule,  with  a 
grave  severity  of  sarcasm  that  reminds  the  reader  of 
the  classical  ages.  The  same  attack  is  vigorously 
repeated  in  the  Moviad,  and  these  two  short  works 
may  carry  their  author's  name  down  to  succeeding 
ages.  Their  conciseness  is  favorable  to  their  con- 
tinuance ;  for  there  is  much  truth  in  Freron's  bon  mot, 
applied  to  the  variety  of  volumes  of  which  Voltaire's 
works  are  composed.  '  This  luggage  is  too  cumber- 
some to  travel  to  posterity.'  " 

In  his  copy  of  the  Memoirs  of  Frederick  and 
Margaret  Klopstock  (Philadelphia,  18 10),  Mr.  Kent 
notes:  — 

"  Klopstock,  Schiller,  and  Goethe  are  a  triumvirate 
which  no  country  except  England  can  equal.  Klop- 
stock had  no  knowledge  of  mankind,  and  could  not 
describe  those  evil  passions  to  which  his  own  breast 
was  happily  a  stranger.  He  could  paint,  indeed,  with 
exquisite,  perhaps  matchless  beauty,  the  characters 
of  tenderness  or  religious  hope,  or  the  agonies  of 
despairing  penitence ;  but  not  the  horrible  workings 
of  jealousy,  ambition,  hatred,  and  pride.  His  evil 
characters  in  the  '  Messiah '  are  all  meager  sketches, 
but  the  '  Messiah  *  is  still  a  noble  work.  There  runs 
through  the  whole  a  persevering  spirit  of  piety  and 


246        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

poetry,  which  amply  compensate  for  occasional 
mysticism ;  and  there  are  some  descriptions,  and  still 
more  efifusions  of  eloquent  feehng,  which  the  admirers 
of  Milton  will  find  it  hard  to  parallel.  The  genius 
of  Klopstock  was  influenced  by  the  perusal  of  Milton 
and  Young.  Madame  de  Stael  translated  his  ode  on 
the  rivalship  of  the  Muse  of  Germany  with  the  Muse 
of  Albion." 

The  wide  range  of  the  Chancellor's  reading  is  illus- 
trated in  a  letter  to  Professor  SiUiman,  of  Yale  College, 
the  eminent  mineralogist. 

Chancellor  Kent  to  Professor  SiUiman. 

Albany,  August  7,  1819. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  am  obliged  to  interrupt  your  studies  for  a 
moment  to  thank  you  for  the  pleasure  and  instruction  you 
have  given  me  in  another  work  of  yours  which  has  lately 
been  presented  by  you  and  to  which  I  have  become  a  sub- 
scriber. I  have  read  attentively  such  parts  as  were  most 
interesting  to  me  of  the  four  numbers  in  first  volume  of 
your  "  Journal  of  Science,"  and  you  have  communicated 
such  charm  and  luster  to  the  science  of  mineralogy  and  the 
other  kindred  branches  that  I  have  been  led  to  regret  my 
exclusive  attention  hitherto  to  the  more  dull  and  dry  science 
of  jurisprudence.  If  I  were  young  in  life  I  have  no  doubt 
I  should  enter  with  zeal  into  your  favorite  study,  and  en- 
deavor to  match  some  of  your  generous  enthusiasm  in  the 
pursuit. 

The  science  you  are  engaged  in  offers  new  views  of  the 
wonders  of  creation,  and  affords  new  and  striking  traces  of 
the  wisdom  and  benevolence  of  the  Deity.  The  parts  of 
the  volume  that  most  pleased  me  were  your  review  of  Pro- 
fessor Cleveland's  "Mineralogy,"  of  Cuvier's   "Theory  of 


MEMOIRS  OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        247 

the  Earth,"  on  an  anticipated  visit  to  the  North  Pole,  on  the 
just  and  spirited  vindication  of  Trumbull's  painting,  and 
the  fine  eulogy  on  the  character  of  the  Abbe  Barry,  etc. 
The  journal  of  Mr.  Cornelius  on  the  features  of  the  Southern 
States  was  very  pleasing;  in  short,  all  the  articles  that  I 
could  well  understand  were  read  with  great  interest  and 
satisfaction. 

The  follov^ing  sketch  of  William  Pinkney  is  found 
in  manuscript  on  the  fly-leaf  of  a  volume  entitled 
"  Some  Account  of  the  Writings  and  Speeches  of 
WiUiam  Pinkney,"  by  H.  Wheaton  (New  York,  1826) : 

"Mr.  Pinkney  is  a  free-spoken  man;  he  is  plain 
and  bold,  and  a  little  inclined  to  sarcasm  and  airs  of 
insulting  superiority.  His  style  has  the  free  flowing 
and  elegant  simplicity  and  the  chaste  beauties  of  the 
judicial  opinions  of  Sir  William  Scott.^  He  handles 
the  opinions  and  decrees  of  Sir  James  Marriott  with- 
out much  reverence.  Mr.  Pinkney  shows  himself  by 
this  paper  ('  Memorial  against  the  Rule  of  1756,  and 
the  Attacks  by  the  British,  down  to  1806,  on  Neutral 
Commerce  ')  to  be  a  publicist  of  great  knowledge  and 
ardent  feelings,  and  of  bold,  dogmatic,  arrogant,  sar- 
castic, denunciatory,  vehement,  and  masterly  powers 
of  declamation  and  argument.  No  man  went  greater 
lengths  than  he  did  in  support  of  and  devotion  to  the 
administrations  of  Jefferson  and  Madison,  and  im- 
placable hostility  to  England.  No  man  was  more 
devoted  to  the  administrations  of  Jefferson  and  Madi- 
son, in  all  their  acts  and  policies  with  England  and 
France,  and  he  and  Madison  agreed  well  in  them. 
His  speech  in  the  case  of  the  '  Nereide '  is  a  splendid 
1  Baron  Stowell. 


248        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

specimen  of  forensic  eloquence  and  classical  illus- 
tration and  ingenious  and  powerful  argument  and 
accurate  and  profound  knowledge  of  public  law. 
His  speech  on  the  treaty  power  is  admirable  and 
finished.  It  ranks  with  the  best  of  Cicero's  speeches. 
May  1 6,  1826,  Wheaton  called  on  me,  and  spoke 
much  concerning  William  Pinkney.  He  said  his 
talents  were  splendid,  but  his  moral  character  was 
bad  ;  he  was  wrapped  up  in  himself  and  deemed  him- 
self great,  without  an  equal.  He  cared  for  nothing 
but  what  contributed  to  his  individual  vanity  and  self- 
gratification.  He  modeled  himself  upon  Cicero,  and 
had  his  polished  style,  his  art,  his  ambition  as  an 
actor,  and  his  same  vanity.  He  was  a  perfect  dandy 
in  his  dress,  and  devoted  much  time  to  his  dear 
person.  He  was  brave,  and  not  vindictive,  and  upon 
the  whole  would  make  a  sacrifice  to  gratify  his  love 
of  self  and  of  fame.  He  was  destitute  of  the  noblest 
moral  qualifications,  simplicity,  modesty,  generosity, 
purity,  disinterestedness,  and,  in  short,  he  was  one  of 
the  '  brightest  and  meanest  of  mankind.'  " 

Almost  immediately  after  its  publication,  the  Chan- 
cellor, as  noted  upon  a  previous  page,  procured  and 
eagerly  perused  Sparks'  "  Life  of  Washington  "  (Bos- 
ton, 1804).^  In  his  personal  copy  of  the  work  are 
found  these  comments :  — 

"  The  letters  of  Washington  are  deeply  interesting. 
They  are  written  with  admirable  good  sense  and  ex- 
alted patriotism.  His  prudence  and  discretion  are 
above  all  praise.    The  free  and  frank  manner  in  which 

^  Supra,  p.  146. 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        249 

he  corresponds  with  Congress  shows  his  unbounded 
influence  and  integrity  and  candor.  His  style  is  clear 
and  forcible,  and  not  destitute  of  elegance.  He  was 
truly  the  great  master  spirit  that  sustained  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution.  General  Washington  strongly  re- 
monstrated, in  1778,  against  the  military  appointments 
lavished  on  foreign  ofhcers,  French  and  German. 
They  were  vain,  presumptuous,  clamorous  applicants, 
and  created  great  disgust  in  the  American  officers. 
General  Washington  regretted  that  ever  a  commission 
was  granted  to  a  foreign  officer,  even  to  Baron  Steu- 
ben, —  the  Marquis  Fayette  always  excepted,  whom 
he  tenderly  loved.  The  patriotism,  firmness,  wisdom, 
prudence,  enterprise,  and  matchless  simplicity,  inte- 
grity, and  industry  of  General  Washington,  as  dis- 
played in  these  volumes,  are  beyond  all  precedent. 
The  United  States  is  indebted  for  its  independence 
to  him,  more  than  to  all  Congress  united.  His  letters 
are  admirable,  and  display  the  great  statesman  no  less 
than  the  discreet  and  daring  soldier." 

In  these  memoranda  and  notes,  made,  doubtless, 
for  his  own  eye  and  mind  alone,  the  Chancellor  was 
exceedingly  free  and  untrammeled,  especially  in  his 
comments  upon  contemporaries.  Even  to  his  latest 
days,  he  ceased  not  in  his  detestation  of  the  political 
principles  advocated  by  Thomas  Jefferson.  Ardent 
partisan  as  he  was,  however,  and  fully  recognizing 
what  he  regarded  as  well-nigh  moral  obliquity  in  his 
political  opponents,  he  was  still  able  to  characterize 
with  fairness  the  personal  qualities  of  such  opponents, 
and  the  literary  value  of  their  writings.    In  illustration 


250        MEMOIRS    OF    CHANCELLOR    KENT 

of  this  characteristic  of  Chancellor  Kent,  is  repro- 
duced a  note  inscribed,  in  the  year  1836,  upon  a  fly- 
leaf of  a  volume  of  "  Letters  on  Silesia,"  by  John 
Ouincy  Adams  (London,  1804)  :  — 

"John  Quincy  Adams,  Senator  in  Congress  from 
Massachusetts,  was,  in  June,  1806,  installed  in  Cam- 
bridge, as  Professor  of  Rhetoric.  In  June,  1808,  he 
resigned  his  seat  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  in 
disgust,  because  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  had  just 
elected  Mr.  Lloyd  as  his  successor,  and  condemned  with 
marked  disapprobation  the  measure  of  the  Embargo, 
which  he  had  advocated.  In  the  summer  of  1809,  he 
was  sent  as  minister  from  the  United  States  to  Russia. 
He  turned,  in  1808  and  1809,  to  be  an  apostate  like 
his  father,  and  became  a  malignant  libeler  of  the 
Federalists,  and  a  base  and  unprincipled  tool  of  the 
Jeffersonian  administration.  In  18 13  he  was  ap- 
pointed a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States;  this  he  declined.  In  1813,  being  still  resident 
minister  at  St.  Petersburg,  he  was,  in  conjunction  with 
Mr.  Gallatin  and  Mr.  Bayard,  appointed  to  negotiate 
a  peace  with  Great  Britain,  under  the  mediation  of 
Russia.  He  was  one  of  the  Commissioners  that  nego- 
tiated the  Treaty  of  Peace  at  Ghent,  in  18 14,  with 
Great  Britain.  In  February,  1825,  he  was  elected 
President  of  the  United  States.  In  February,  1829,  he 
lost  his  re-election  by  a  large  majority,  and  Andrew 
Jackson  succeeded  him  as  President.  He  retired  from 
office  with  the  detestation  of  the  Boston  and  New  Eng- 
land Federalists,  for  his  recent  malignant  calumnies. 
In  i835,JohnQ.  Adams  was  a  candidate  for  the  Senate 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT       251 

of  the  United  States  and  was  defeated.  G.  Davis,  of 
Boston,  was  preferred.  Mr.  Adams  then  relapsed 
into  mahgnant  and  unprincipled  anti-Federalism,  and 
abused  the  Federalists  and  the  Hartford  Convention 
party  (that  was  his  plea)  in  unmeasured  terms  ;  and  in 
January,  1836,  as  a  member  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, he  abused  the  Senate  and  Daniel  Webster, 
and  became  a  warm  partisan  of  Jackson's  administra- 
tion and  doctrines. 

"On  November  5,  1831,  J.  Q.  Adams  spent  the 
evening  at  my  house.  He  was  in  good  health,  and 
read  with  poetical  enthusiasm  some  verses  of  his  own, 
on  the  house  in  which  he  was  born,  and  the  scenery 
around  it.  They  were  highly  poetical,  pathetic,  and 
beautiful.  He  read  a  good  deal  in  the  plays  of 
Hamlet,  Romeo  and  Juliet,  and  Othello,  and  criticised 
ably  on  the  design  of  the  plays.  Hamlet,  he  thinks 
the  greatest  character  in  all  Shakespeare.  He  was 
profoundly  meditative,  and  of  the  loftiest  and  finest 
moral  sensibility.  He  touches  on  the  verge  of  mad- 
ness all  along,  by  reason  of  his  keen  feeling." 

Chancellor  Kent's  opinion  of  Napoleon  and  his 
career,  while  yet  that  brilliant,  masterful  genius  was 
storming  through  Europe,  has  already  been  recorded.-^ 
A  line  in  retrospect,  written  tvventy-five  years  later, 
cannot  fail  to  be  of  interest.  In  his  copy  of  "  Napo- 
leon and  his  Times,"  by  Caulaincourt,  Duke  of  Vicenza 
(Philadelphia,  1838),  is  found  this  minute:  — 

"I  read  these  two  volumes  in  October,  1838,  and 
I  found  them  very  interesting.     They  are  admirably 

1  Supra,  177. 


252        ^.lEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

written,  and  give  fine,  and  I  think  very  true  graphic 
sketches  of  Napoleon's  character.  The  great  his- 
torical events  in  i8i2  and  1813,  1814  and  1815,  are 
truly  stated,  though  very  briefly,  and  the  consolations, 
views,  feelings,  and  distress  of  Napoleon,  and  espe- 
cially in  the  closing  scenes  of  18 14  and  181 5,  are 
deeply  striking  and  pathetic.  No  human  being  ever 
paid  more  bitterly  for  the  pangs  his  ambition  and 
armies  had  inflicted  on  the  rest  of  Europe.  He 
considered  himself  betrayed  by  the  friends  he  had 
elevated  to  greatness,  such  as  Fouche,  Davoust, 
Talleyrand,  etc.,  and  his  humiliations  and  agonies 
were  extreme  in  June,  181 5.  The  whole  portrait  is 
drawn  with  a  master  hand.  Napoleon  was  devoted  to 
his  army.     His  whole  genius  and  soul  were  military," 

His  note  in  Thomas  Carlyle's  "  French  Revolution  " 
(Boston,  1839),  is  brief  and  pungent:  — 

"  In  his  '  Sartor  Resartus  '  and  his  critical  essays, 
Carh'le  is  a  disciple  of  the  Platonic  School  of  Phi- 
losophy, beyond  the  reach  of  man's  understanding." 

In  his  copy  of  Prescott's  "  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  " 
(Boston,  1838),  Chancellor  Kent  penned  this  brief 
note :  — 

"  The  author  of  these  volumes  called  on  me  at  my 
house,  in  company  with  Mr.  Charles  Sumner,  April  7, 
1842.  He  looked  fresh  and  hearty,  and  in  middle 
life.  He  says  he  spent  last  evening  with  Washington 
Irving." 

A  few  years  later,  Hon.  William  Kent,  the  Chan- 
cellor's only  son,  then  a  professor  of  law  in  Harvard 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT       253 

College,  had  the  pleasure  of  dining  with  the  historian 
Prescott,  at  his  home  in  Boston.  This  experience  he 
thus  described  to  his  father :  — 

William  Kent  to  Chancellor  Kent. 

Cambridge,  March  18,  1847. 

I  dined  yesterday  with  William  Prescott,  the  historian. 
He  is  a  very  charming  person,  bearing  his  faculties  so 
meekly,  and  being  so  witty  and  genial  in  his  conversation 
and  manners,  as  to  win  all  hearts.  We  had  at  dinner  Mr. 
Choate,  who  is  a  striking  person  indeed,  something  Uke 
Webster  in  appearance,  with  hair  as  black  and  complexion 
as  sallow,  and  eyes  as  large  and  melancholy.  He  is  inter- 
esting in  conversation,  and  seems  to  be  a  very  critical 
scholar.  Then  we  had  Ticknor,  Sparks,  and  Sumner,  and 
Dr.  Frothingham  the  clergyman,  and  Mr.  Gardener  from 
the  Kennebeck  in  Maine,  and  Dr.  Bigelow  the  physician, 
and  Mr.  Bowen,  editor  of  the  North  American  Review. 
We  were  all,  you  see,  very  literary  and  grave  people. 
Prescott  lives  in  elegant  style ;  he  inherited  a  large  fortune, 
and  his  books  alone  would  make  him  rich.  His  house  is 
furnished  as  beseems  the  historian  of  Spain.  \\\  his  draw- 
ing-room are  portraits  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  sent  him 
from  Spain.  He  has  in  his  hall  a  full-length  portrait  of 
Cortez.  Isabella  is  beautiful  on  canvas ;  has  a  face  to 
adore  for  its  angelic  sweetness  and  beauty. 

The  library  is  the  finest  private  library  I  have  seen. 
Over  the  mantel-piece  is  a  fine  head  of  the  great  Captain 
Gonzalvo  de  Cordova,  who  looks  the  princely  and  noble 
creature  that  he  was.  In  this  beautiful  room  we  took  coffee, 
and  here  he  received  his  visitors ;  and  when  he  wishes  to 
be  private,  a  book-case  revolves  and  discloses  secret  stairs, 
which  lead  to  a  retired  room  in  the  third  story,  where  the 
window  lights  are  adapted  to  Prescott' s  weak  eyes,  and  where 


254        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

he  manufactures  his  histories.  Here  was  the  place  I  passed 
last  evening,  and  then,  consequently,  walked  through  a  slight 
snow-storm  all  the  way  to  Cambridge,  when  it  was  as  dark 
as  pitch,  and  near  eleven  o'clock. 

But  few  of  the  many  notes  with  which  the  books  of 
his  library  are  besprinkled  have  been  quoted  in  this 
chapter.  It  is  to  be  deeply  regretted  that  the  copious 
notes  which  he  is  known  to  have  made  throughout 
his  set  of  the  Waverley  Novels  cannot,  at  least  in  part, 
be  reproduced.  He  read  all  these  with  avidity  as  they 
appeared,  and  was  enthusiastic  in  their  praise.  Each 
volume,  after  perusing,  he  enriched  with  a  fund  of 
manuscript  notes  and  comment,  which  were  both  a 
study  and  a  pleasure  to  read.  Unfortunately,  this 
quantity  of  manuscript  filled  so  many  pages  of  each 
volume  that  the  firm  to  which  the  rebinding  of  the 
old  edition  was  intrusted  determined  to  make  a  sepa- 
rate volume  of  the  notes,  and  collected  them  together 
to  be  bound  in  uniform  shape  with  the  other  volumes. 
This  book,  while  in  the  hands  of  the  binder,  disap- 
peared, probably  being  taken  by  some  one  whose 
honesty  was  not  proof  against  the  desire  to  possess  a 
work  so  unusual  in  character.  The  loss  is  deeply  to . 
be  deplored,  as  it  leaves  a  void  in  his  library  which 
cannot  be  replaced. 

In  August,  1840,  Chancellor  Kent  was  addressed 
by  Augustus  E.  Silliman,  the  President  of  the  Mer- 
cantile Library  Association  of  New  York,  with  a  re- 
quest that  he' would  prepare  a  list  of  books  for  the 
guidance  of  the  members  of  the  association  in  sup- 
plementing what  had  been,  in  many  cases,  a  meager 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        255 

education.  The  Chancellor  replied  at  length,  giving 
a  list  of  books  which  he  recommended,  adding,  in 
many  instances,  some  words  of  criticism.  An  ex- 
amination of  the  list  discloses  a  preponderance  of 
works  of  travel  and  history.  The  list  is,  however, 
interesting  as  displaying  the  condition  of  literature 
at  that  period,  and  showing  what  were  regarded  by 
the  highest  authority  as  standard  works  in  each  of 
the  leading  departments  of  learning.  The  depart- 
ment of  American  history  is  especially  interesting, 
quoting,  as  it  does,  some  authorities  now  obsolete. 
Among  these  forgotten  or  incomplete  works  are 
Burke's  European  Settlements  in  America,  two  vol- 
umes, 1760,  which,  he  notes,  is  "much  esteemed;" 
Bancroft's  History,  in  two  volumes  only,  of  which  Mr. 
Kent  says,  "  There  is  much  to  admire  in  the  research 
and  style  of  this  work ;  "  Grahame's  History  of  the 
United  States,  "  a  European  production,  written  with 
great  gravity  and  dignity,  moderation  and  justice ;  " 
and  Pitkin's  History  of  the  United  States,  1763- 1797, 
"  an  accurate  and  trustworthy  production." 

In  the  department  of  poetry.  Chancellor  Kent 
recommends  the  perusal  of  Shakespeare,  Milton,  — 
especially  his  Paradise  Lost,  —  Dryden,  Butler's  Hu- 
dibras,  Parnell's  The  Hermit,  Addison,  Tickell,  — 
Elegy  addressed  to  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  —  Pope, 
Thomson's  The  Seasons,  Collins'  Odes  and  Pastorals ; 
Tasso  and  Ariosto,  translated  by  Hoole  and  Rose ; 
Young's  Night  Thoughts,  Gray,  Goldsmith,  Johnson, 
Beattie,  Cowper,  Burns,  Campbell,  Rogers,  Crabbe, 
Southey,  Scott,  Wordsworth,  and  Byron.  Of  Ameri- 
can poets,  he  dares  not  attempt  to  decide,  but  limits 


256        MEMOIRS    OF    CHANCELLOR    KENT 

himself  to  the  recommendation  of  the  works  of  two 
only,  "  townsmen  of  our  own  " :  F.-G.  Halleck  and 
W.  C.  Bryant.  "The  lyrical  pieces  and  je?ix  d' esprit  of 
the  first,"  he  says,  "  are  distinguished  for  their  beau- 
tiful imagery,  piquant  wit,  and  polished  diction."  Of 
Bryant  he  says :  "  His  poetry,  pure  and  elegant  in 
language,  and  pervaded  with  an  intense  sympathy, 
with  all  the  varied  beauties  of  inanimate  nature,  sinks 
into  the  heart  of  the  reader." 

In  fiction,  the  Chancellor  recommends  the  perusal 
of  Don  Quixote,  Gil  Bias,  Telemachus,  Richardson's 
Clarissa,  and  Sir  Charles  Grandison,  Fielding,  and 
Smollett,  Johnson's  Rasselas,  Goldsmith's  Vicar  of 
Wakefield,  Mackenzie's  Man  of  Feeling,  Moore's 
Zelucco,  and  Mordaunt,  Mrs.  Radcliffe's  Mysteries  of 
Udolpho,  and  The  Italian,  Crabbe's  Tales,  Godwin's 
Caleb  Williams,  Brown's  Wieland,  and  Ormond 
("  American  productions  of  great  energy,  but  of 
grave  character"),  Scott's  novels  ("Every  volume, 
every  page,  to  be  read.  What  novel,  or  what  dia- 
logue, is  there  in  Scott,  over  which  the  reader  may 
not  pause  and  admire?"),  Irving's  Talcs  and  Ro- 
mances, Cooper's  novels,  novels  by  Dickens  under 
the  name  of  Boz,  Bulvver's  Rienzi,  Pompeii,  Athens 
("  He  is  celebrated  for  his  genius,  enthusiasm,  and 
power  of  description,  but  he  is  deficient  in  practical 
good  sense  and  simple  delineation  of  the  characters 
and  sympathies  that  belong  to  actual  life  "). 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT       257 


X 


THROUGHOUT  the  long  and  busy  life  of 
Chancellor  Kent  there  was  one  unchanging 
undercurrent  of  feehng  which  appears  in  all  his 
correspondence,  —  his  strong  and  ardent  love  for  his 
home,  his  wife,  his  family,  and  the  pursuit  of  learning, 
of  which  he  never  wearied.  His  highest  anticipation 
was  that,  at  some  time,  he  might  retire  from  the 
"busy  haunts  of  men,"  and,  gathering  about  him  his 
family  and  belongings  on  some  sunny  hillside,  pass 
the  rest  of  his  days  in  ideal  repose.  It  was  the  early 
cultivation  of  these  peaceful  pleasures  and  pursuits 
which  brought  such  tranquil  happiness  to  his  declin- 
ing years.  In  his  address  before  the  Law  Association 
to  which  reference  has  been  made,^  he  pointed  out 
the  dangers,  not  only  of  professional,  but  of  modern 
life,  in  words  which  have  their  vivid  application  at 
the  present  day. 

"  We  live  in  a  period  of  uncommon  excitement. 
The  spirit  of  the  age  is  restless,  presumptuous,  and 
revolutionary.  The  rapidly  increasing  appetite  for 
wealth;  the  inordinate  taste  for  luxury  which  it  en- 
genders ;  the  vehement  spirit  of  speculation,  and  the 
selfish  emulation  which  it  creates ;  the  contempt  for 
slow  and  moderate  gains ;  the  ardent  thirst  for  pleas- 
ure and  amusement;    the  diminishing  reverence  for 

1  Supra,  p.  30. 
17 


258       MEMOIRS  OF  CHANCELLOR   KENT 

the  wisdom  of  the  past ;  the  disregard  of  the  lessons 
of  experience,  the  authority  of  magistrates,  and  the 
venerable  institutions  of  ancestral  policy,  —  are  so 
many  bad  symptoms  of  the  diseased  state  of  the  public 
mind.  It  requires  a  most  determined  perseverance 
and  firmness  of  purpose,  and  a  most  devoted  zeal  in 
the  rising  members  of  the  Bar,  to  resist  the  contagion, 
and  pursue  triumphantly  the  rewards  and  honor  of 
professional  reputation." 

That  he  faithfully  followed,  in  his  walk  through  life, 
the  practice  of  those  virtues  which  were  calculated  to 
develop  and  broaden  his  higher  spiritual  and  mental 
character,  was  known  to  all,  and  the  spontaneous 
applause  which  followed  him  at  every  turn  was  the 
willing  tribute  of  honor  which  the  world  pays  to 
recognized   ability  and  virtue. 

It  was  not  until  late  in  life  that  the  summit  of  his 
desire  was  reached.  He  did  not  profess  to  keep  a 
diary,  but  in  his  later  years  he  would  from  time  to 
time  make  brief  memoranda  and  notes  of  matters 
of  interest  to  him.  On  the  31st  of  July,  1839,  he 
recorded :  — 

"  I  am  this  day  "jG  years  of  age,  and  in  unimpaired 
health.  My  dear  wife  is  well,  and  I  owe  the  deepest 
gratitude  to  the  great  Father  of  Mercies  for  our 
protracted  and  pleasant  and  healthy  and  delightful 
married  life  for  54  years  and  upwards.  I  am  in  a 
charming  country  seat  at  my  Summit  Lodge,  sur- 
rounded with  every  blessing,  and  blessed  with  ample 
competence.  My  wife  and  all  my  children  (and  all 
are  with  me)  enjoy  the  place  with  great  interest  and 
sensibility." 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        259 

And  so  the  Sabine  Farm  was  at  last  attained,  and 
here  he  passed  the  evening  of  his  days  in  unalloyed 
peace  and  happiness.  At  his  house  in  New  York 
the  winters  were  passed  amid  his  beloved  books,  and 
in  social  intercourse  and  pleasures.  Now  he  notes 
having  dined  with  a  party  of  friends,  of  whom  Wash- 
ington Irving  was  one.  Now  he  records  his  attend- 
ance at  a  wedding,  and  now  a  carriage  drive,  with  his 
wife  and  daughter,  to  pay  an  afternoon  visit.  Again 
he  makes  minute  that  "  Mr.  Sumner,  of  Boston,  drank 
tea  and  spent  the  evening  with  us."  Still  again,  he 
notes  that  he  "  visited  in  the  evening  Judge  Thompson 
and  his  young  wife,  and  then  went  to  the  old  Club  at 
Dr.  MacVickar's,  where  I  saw,  among  others,  Judge 
Botsford,  of  New  Brunswick,  N.  S.,  who  graduated  at 
Yale  College  in  1792,  and  was  classmate  and  room- 
mate with  my  cousin,  Robert  Grant."  On  December 
14,  1836,  he  notes  that  "A.  B.  Durand  finished  my 
portrait  for  the  Cambridge  Law  School." 

Although  he  was  mindful  of  his  lengthening  days, 
he  did  in  no  wise  relax  his  cheerfulness.  At  74  he 
was  still  young  enough  to  meet  with  a  party  of  friends, 
and  pass  a  social  evening.  In  1837  he  notes:  "The 
Kent  Club  met  at  my  house  this  evening  (May  13)." 
After  giving  a  list  of  those  present,  among  whom  were 
numbered  Charles  O'Conor  and  Captain  Marryat,  the 
noveHst,  he  notes :  "  We  had  a  pleasant  supper,  ice 
cream,  stewed  oysters;  and  they  drank  a  dozen  of 
champagne  and  stayed  till  near  twelve  o'clock,  a  very 
respectable  and  gratified  party." 

Still  later,  in  January,  1839,  when  he  was  nearly 
']6  years  of  age,  he  records  the  passing  of  an  evening 


26o        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

in  congenial  company  at  a  public  house.  "  I  went 
down  in  the  evening  with  Mr.  Blatchford,"  he  writes, 
"  and  called  on  Mr.  Webster  at  the  Astor  House.  I 
found  him  at  a  private  dinner  table,  eating  grapes 
and  nuts,  and  drinking  wine,  with  his  son  (the  young- 
est, now  a  Sophomore  in  Dartmouth  College),  Mr. 
Prescott  Hall,  Mr.  M.  Grinnell  (congressman  elect), 
Mr.  Draper,  and  others,  and  we  had  a  charming 
table  chat  until  nine  P.  M.  Mr.  Webster  looks  care- 
worn, and  thin,  and  a  constitution  impaired,  and  evi- 
dently in  despair  of  the  good  and  wise  government  of 
his  country.  He  talked  a  good  deal  about  the  two 
Adamses,  and  told  anecdotes  of  them  and  of  General 
Stark,  and  Indian  stories  of  the  war  of  1756,  and  we 
eulogized  Washington  and  Hamilton.  He  thought 
that  Washington  showed  the  various  heroic  and 
statesman's  powers  of  Marlborough  and  Wellington, 
and  he  exalted  greatly  Hamilton,  on  the  vindication 
of  the  National  Bank." 

In  August,  1839,  he  records:  — 

"  I  remained  all  day  quietly  in  my  house,  reading 
and  writing  in  delightful  solitude.  Ellen  came  to  wait 
upon  me.  It  was  a  chilly  day,  with  northeast  wind, 
and  showery ;  the  afternoon  towards  sundown  there 
was  a  most  gorgeous  landscape  and  black  and  bright 
clouds  and  blue  sky.  I  enjoyed  it  in  my  loneliness 
and  thought  much  and  tenderly  of  my  precious  wife. 
I  did  not  stir  out  of  the  front  door,  or  see  any  person 
but  my  two  colored  servants  (Ruth  and  Ellen),  from 
I  o'clock  P.  M.  on  Saturday  until  after  breakfast  on 
•Monday.     It  was  quite  a  novel  and  interesting  situa- 


MEMOIRS  OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT       261 

tion,  and  gave  me  an  opportunity  to  indulge  in  pro- 
miscuous reading  and  examine  my  finances  and  write 
letters  to  my  heart's  content." 

On  the  5th  of  March,  1840,  he  makes  this  record  :  — 

"  Mr.  Charles  Sumner  dined  with  me,  and  spent  the 
evening  with  my  son.  He  returned  yesterday  from 
Europe,  having  been  absent  two  years  from  last 
December.  He  talked  incessantly;  is  inflated  with 
exaggerated  egotism ;  has  been  familiar  with  Bench 
and  Bar  of  Westminster ;  has  ridden  an  English  Cir- 
cuit, and  been  familiar  with  the  gentry  and  nobility ; 
has  seen  the  best  literary  characters  in  France  and 
Germany,  Vienna,  Berlin,  Brussels,  Heidelberg,  and 
Italy.  Mr.  Sumner  showed  me  one  of  the  original 
exchequer  tallies,  he  also  gave  me  the  address  of 
M.  Mittermaier." 

In  May  of  the  same  year  he  records :  "  Mrs.  Butler, 
formerly  Miss  Fanny  Kemble,^  niece  of  Mrs.  Siddons, 
called  at  our  house  with  her  husband  ;  she  is  an  inter- 
esting little  brunette,  with  fine,  glowing,  sharp  black 
eyes." 

In  August,  1840,  he  makes  an  interesting  minute: 

"August  22.  Daniel  Webster  dined  with  me  on  his 
own  invitation.  He  was  on  his  way  to  Morristown 
and  to  Sussex  County  to  meet  a  gathering  of  the 
Whigs.     Dr.  Condit,  of  Morristown,  dined  with  me. 

1  Frances  Anne  Kemble,  born  in  London  November  27,  1809; 
made  her  debut  on  the  stage  1829;  went  to  America  1832;  married 
Pierce  Butler  1834;  died  January  15,  1893. 


262        MEIMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

Mr.  Collins  dined  here.  It  was  a  very  interesting 
party,  and  Mr.  Webster  charmed  the  party.  He  is  57 
years  old,  and  looks  worn  and  furrowed;  his  belly 
becomes  protuberant,  and  his  eyes  deep  in  his  head. 
I  sympathize  with  his  condition.  He  has  been  too 
free  a  liver.     He  ate  but  little,  and  drank  wine  freely." 

In  August,  1 84 1,  Chancellor  Kent  experienced  the 
inexpressible  pleasure  of  seeing  his  son  a  judge  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York,  in  the  seat  which 
he  himself  had  occupied  many  years  before.  He 
makes  record  of  the  appointment  on  the  19th  of  that 
month:  "  My  son  was,  on  the  i6th  instant,  appointed 
Circuit  Judge  of  the  First  Circuit,  in  room  of  Ogden 
Edwards,  whose  office  expired  at  his  age  of  60.  The 
news  of  his  appointment  was  announced  in  the  even- 
ing papers.  (Coincidence  —  On  the  last  of  August, 
1798,  I  held  the  Circuit  Court  and  Court  of  Oyer 
and  Terminer  in  and  for  Kings  Co.  On  the  last  of 
August,  1841,  my  son  (unborn  in  1798)  is  to  hold  the 
Circuit  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer  for  Kings  Co.) 
This  is  a  species  of  hereditary  succession  honorable 
to  both  parties." 

On  the  25th  of  October  he  records:  "Mr.  Bacon, 
of  Litchfield  in  Connecticut,  called  on  me.  He  is  well, 
strong,  and  prosperous,  has  two  sons,  and  is  aged  70. 
I  went  with  him  to  the  Circuit  Court,  and  saw  my  son 
on  the  Bench.  The  visit  to  the  court  was  impressive. 
To  see  my  son  sitting  modestly  and  solitary  on  the 
Bench  of  the  Circuit  Court,  trying  a  case  on  the  same 
spot  where  I  was  trying  civil  cases  in  December,  18 13, 
as  Chief-Justice,  was  affecting." 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT       263 

On  the  3d  of  April,  1842,  the  Chancellor  made  a 
beautiful  and  touching  minute  in  his  diary.  "  This 
day  (it  was  also  a  Sunday),"  he  writes,  "57  years  ago, 
I  was  married  at  Colonel  Bailey's,  at  his  little  farm- 
house, in  the  commons  out  of  Poughkeepsie.  Mrs. 
Kent  and  I  have  lived  in  uniform  general  health,  and 
in  very  great  domestic  happiness  down  to  this  day. 
An  enchantment  seems  to  me  to  be  always  thrown 
around  my  own  home  and  my  own  fireside  and  office, 
and  the  attractions  of  my  beloved  wife." 

In  the  autumn  of  this  year  an  event  occurred  which 
was  of  great  interest  to  Chancellor  Kent,  and  which 
furnished  for  him  a  fund  of  pleasure.  It  was  at  this 
time  that  the  Croton  water  was  first  brought  into  New 
York,  and  in  a  letter  to  Daniel  Webster  he  gives  a 
minute  description  of  its  introduction,  together  with 
a  description  of  the  manner  in  which  he  was  passing 
the  evening  of  his  life. 

Chancellor  Kent  to  Daniel  Webster. 

...  I  thank  you  for  the  kind  feelings  you  have  done  me 
the  honor  to  express,  in  respect  to  my  health  and  condition. 
I  am  indeed  in  my  80th  year,  but,  thank  God,  I  am  wonder- 
fully well  and  active,  and  my  ardor  for  reading  and  my 
susceptibilities,  I  think,  are  as  alive  as  ever  to  the  charms 
of  nature,  of  literature,  and  of  society.  I  keep  aloof  from  all 
fashionable  parties  except  when  my  daughter  (Mrs.  H.)  has 
some  small  ones  at  my  house,  at  which  Ma  and  I  are  obliged 
to  be  present,  and  I  chat  and  flatter  as  much  as  ever  with 
pretty  ladies.  My  reading  is  regular  and  constant,  —  all 
the  reports  of  law  decisions  as  fast  as  I  procure  them,  all 
the  periodicals,  foreign  and  domestic,  and  old  literature  and 
new  books  are  steadily  turned  over.     I  have  been  reading. 


264        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

a  day  or  two  past,  at  intervals,  Dr.  Arnold's  History  of  Rome. 
His  criticisms  are  doubtless  true  and  just,  but  dull.  I  re- 
lieve myself  by  going  from  some  of  his  allusions  to  one  of 
the  muses,  or  the  books  of  Herodotus,  or  Livy ;  and  they 
amuse  my  old  age  like  enchanting  historical  novels.  I  don't 
like  altogether  bald,  naked,  sterile  facts.  I  hke  a  little  of 
the  poetry  of  history,  as  well  as  of  life  itself,  in  all  its  modi- 
fications. I  deal  sufficiently  with  dry  and  stern  facts  when 
I  study  law  cases.  I  turned  to  one  of  Gibbon's  chapters 
on  the  irruption  of  the  Northern  nations  into  the  Roman 
provinces,  and  with  what  delight  and  what  admiration  ! 
He  has  truth,  forcibly  stated,  but  adorned  with  taste,  style, 
wisdom,  and  surpassing  energy  and  eloquence  of  language. 

I  partly  ride  and  partly  walk  down  town  daily  to  my  of- 
fice, and  have  occasional  opinions  to  give,  but  more  out  of 
the  State  than  in  it ;  and  then  hasten  up  to  my  attractive 
home  and  office  on  Union  Square,  facing  the  lofty /<?/  cfeau 
which  is  constantly  playing  before  my  eyes.  The  associa- 
tions with  this  water  are  to  me  delightful.  I  was  born  on 
my  father's  farm  in  Putnam  County,  in  the  eastern  part  of 
the  Highlands  ;  and  his  farm  was  bounded  by  the  Croton 
River,  where  I  used  to  fish  and  to  swim  in  my  youthful  days. 
God  bless  the  stream  !  How  would  it  have  astonished  my 
parents  if  they  had  been  foretold,  in  1770,  that  their  eldest 
son  would  live  in  the  midst  of  the  City  of  New  York,  with 
that  very  Croton  pouring  its  pure  and  living  waters  through 
the  streets,  and  throwing  its  majestic  columns  of  water  fifty 
feet  into  the  air  !  So  you  see  how  charmingly  I  am  enabled 
to  pass  my  evening  days. 

Although  Chancellor  Kent  to  his  latest  days  re- 
tained an  interest  in  public  affairs  and  occurrences, 
that  interest  was,  in  his  later  days,  not  so  absorbing 
and  intense  as  at  an  earlier  period.  When  seventy 
he  wrote  to  his  brother :   "  We  have  a  crood  deal  of 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        265 

transitory  visiting  and  calls,  so  that  I  don't  see  but 
that  we  live  quite  as  sociable  and  happy  out  in  Eighth 
Street  as  we  did  in  Greenwich  Street.  You  will  al- 
ways find  a  most  welcome  home  here  whenever  it 
suits  your  convenience  to  return.  The  trying  crisis 
of  affairs  at  Washington  renders  the  news  and  debates 
in  Congress  interesting;  but  standing  as  I  do  near 
the  verge  of  human  life,  such  scenes  are  not  by  any 
means  so  engrossing  as  formerly;  and  though  my 
enthusiasm  may  not  abate,  yet  the  simple  fact  that 
one  has  no  further  ambition  or  selfish  calculations  to 
gratify,  will  inevitably  cool  the  ardor  of  curiosity." 

Again,  a  little  later,  he  writes :  "  It  is  usual,  but 
not  in  the  best  taste,  for  old  folks  to  be  talking  much 
about  their  infirmities.  I  can  say  I  have  none,  un- 
less when  I  eat  or  smoke  a  little  too  much ;  but  that 
propensity  is  pretty  well  under  check,  and  I  have 
reason  to  be  thankful,  and  intensely  so,  for  the  dis- 
cretion, prudence,  and  firmness  with  which  I  am  fur- 
nished by  Providence,  to  avoid  excesses  of  all  kinds. 
It  is  in  our  power,  by  constant  and  unremitted  bodily 
and  mental  exertion  adapted  to  our  age  and  taste,  to 
smooth  the  descent  down  to  the  bottom  of  the  hill  of 
life.  I  hope,  my  dear  brother,  you  will  never  inter- 
mit either,  as  long  as  you  can  move  to  act  and  see 
to  read,  and  I  shall  do  all  in  my  power  to  cheer  and 
comfort  you,  and  I  may  shortly  stand  in  need  of  the 
same  fraternal  sympathy." 

There  was  no  one  among  Chancellor  Kent's  wide 
acquaintance  for  whom  he  entertained  more  profound 
respect  than  for  Judge  Story,  of  Massachusetts.  There 
is  no  record  to  show  when  and  how  the  two  first  be- 


266        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

came  acquainted;  but  in  1836  the  Chancellor,  with 
his  wife,  made  a  journey  to  Boston.  There  he  met 
Judge  Story,  as  he  afterward  related  in  a  letter  to  his 
son. 

CJianccllor  Kent  to  William  Kcjit. 

July  4,  1S36. 

.  .  .  Ruggles  and  I  went  on  Saturday  into  Judge  Story's 
Circuit  Court.  I  was  forced  in,  almost  by  duress,  by  Mr. 
Charles  Sumner,  the  lawyer.  The  Judge  was  in  the  midst  of  a 
law  argument  and  giving  his  opinion  on  a  point  in  the  case. 
The  moment  he  saw  me,  he  called  out  to  me  and  came 
down  from  the  Bench  to  the  Bar  and  shook  hands  with  me 
and  introduced  me  to  the  lawyers  who  were  there  arguing. 
Judge  Davis,  the  district  Judge,  came  from  the  Bench  and 
sat  with  me,  and  the  cause  went  on.  There  is  attention 
and  honor  for  you  !  I  then  went  into  the  Supreme  Judicial 
Court  of  Massachusetts  and  the  Judges  were  reading  opin- 
ions. I  took  a  seat  on  the  front  counsel  bench,  though 
invited  to  take  a  seat  on  the  Bench.  When  I  went  out  the 
Chief  Justice  Shaw,  whom  I  never  saw  before,  followed  me 
and  got  introduced  to  me.  In  the  afternoon  we  all  went 
to  Cambridge,  and  with  Judge  Story  to  Mount  Auburn.  I 
admired  and  was  awe-stricken  with  that  beautiful  and 
interesting  silent  scene.  Last  evening  Ruggles  and  I 
were  at  a  party  of  lawyers,  got  up  by  Judge  Davis  for 
me,  and  it  was  interesting,  though  I  was  too  much  the  ob- 
ject of  attention.  From  Judge  Davis'  party  we  went  to 
another  one  after  nine,  at  Judge  Putnam's,  and  that  was 
in  honor  to  me.  Upon  the  whole,  the  scenes  of  1823,  are 
renewed  with  increased,  rather  than  diminished,  attention. 
But  Judge  Story's  power  of  conversation  among  the  hills 
and  monuments  and  deep  shady  graves  of  Mount  Auburn 
was  incomparable.  He  lead  Ma  by  the  arm  all  the  way, 
and  he  was  eloquence,  and  poetry,  and  pathos,  and  feeling 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        267 

and  tenderness,  and  anecdote,  and  boundless  benignity, 
all  personified  in  his  identical  person.  I  believe  he  is  the 
most  accomplished  and  ardent  and  enlightened  intellect 
extant. 

Three  years  later,  in  January,  1839,  this  visit  was 
returned ;  for  there  appears  in  Chancellor  Kent's 
notes,  under  that  date,  this  entry :  — 

"  January  nth.  Judge  Story  called  at  my  office ;  a 
fine  chat.  He  looks  thin  and  worn  down,  aged  57. 
He  rises  late,  and  does  n't  take  enough  exercise.  He 
speaks  highly  of  his  law  school.  Has  a  poor  opinion 
of  the  judicial  spirit  of  the  times,  and  of  the  moral 
degeneracy  of  the  Bar.  The  English  courts  and 
Bar  are  thinking  better  of  us,  and  study  us.  All  the 
twelve  judges  are  common  men  ;  Lord  Abinger  dis- 
appoints ;  Baron  Alderson  and  J.  Parks  are  the 
best  Judges ;  Chief-Judge  Denman,  a  clever,  common 
man." 

This  memoir  would  be  incomplete  without  the  ad- 
dition of  the  very  charming  letter  sent  by  the  Chan- 
cellor to  Mrs.  Story,  on  his  learning  of  the  death  of 
the  eminent  jurist:  — 

Chancellor  Kent  to  Mrs.  Story. 

New  York,  Sept.  17,  1845. 
Dear  Madam,  —  The  death  of  your  husband  and  my 
friend,  Mr.  Justice  Story,  has  filled  me  with  the  deepest 
commiseration  and  sorrow.  His  image  is  constantly  before 
me,  and  I  respectfully  beg  leave  to  mingle  my  grief  and 
sorrow  with  yours.  He  was  one  of  the  rarest  and  best 
friends  I  had  the  honor  and  happiness  to  possess.  He  has 
done  more  by  his  writings  and  speeches  to  diffuse  my  offi- 


268        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

cial  and  professional  character  (far  indeed  beyond  my  de- 
serts) than  any  hving  man.  My  obhgations  to  him  are 
incalculable.  Permit  me  to  add  my  grateful  sense  of  his 
inestimable  worth  and  value,  in  the  purity  of  his  life,  his 
domestic  and  social  virtues,  his  generous  and  liberal  feelings, 
the  inexpressible  charm  of  his  conversation,  his  varied  ac- 
complishments, his  wonderful  diligence,  his  profound  learn- 
ing, and  his  transcendent  genius.  The  delightful  recollection 
of  his  life  and  character  will,  I  trust  and  believe,  console 
and  cheer  you  through  the  residue  of  your  life.  Believe 
me,  my  dear  madam,  with  the  most  respectful  and  affec- 
tionate regard. 

Your  friend  and  obedient  sen'ant, 

James  Kent. 

Mrs.  Story. 

In  May,  1838,  he  was  invited  to  be  present  at  a 
dinner,  to  be  given  by  the  Philadelphia  Bar  to  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania.  This 
invitation  he  declined,  no  doubt  because  he  antici- 
pated, in  his  presence  at  such  a  dinner,  a  fulsomeness 
of  laudation  which  would  be  distasteful.  Again,  when 
in  June,  1843,  the  Bar  of  Philadelphia  tendered  to 
him  a  public  dinner,  he  again  declined. 

CJianccllor  Kent  to  Committee  of  Philadelpliia  Bar. 

New  York,  June  12,  1843. 
Gentlemen,  —  I  acknowledge  with  deep  emotions  of 
sensibility  and  gratitude  your  letter  of  the  7  th  inst.,  in- 
viting me  on  behalf  of  the  members  of  the  Philadelphia 
Bar  to  a  public  dinner.  To  decline  the  acceptance  of  such 
a  spontaneous  mark  of  respect  for  my  services  and  char- 
acter, from  so  respectable  and  enlightened  a  body  of  men 
as  the  members  of  the  Philadelphia  Bar,  is  embarrassing  to 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        269 

my  grateful  feelings.  I  receive  the  invitation,  and  the  lan- 
guage in  which  you  have  been  pleased  to  convey  it,  as  a 
testimony  of  regard  the  most  honorable  and  impressive  that 
could  have  been  offered ;  and  it  is  with  great  regret  that  I 
am  obliged  to  decline  that  distinguished  honor.  I  hum- 
bly trust  that  my  excuse  will  be  received  with  generous 
indulgence. 

I  am  now  on  the  verge  of  eighty ;  and  I  have  for  some 
time  past  thought  it  proper  and  expedient,  from  the  gentle 
admonitions  suggested  by  that  period  of  life,  to  withdraw 
myself  as  much  as  possible  from  public  duties  of  every 
kind,  and  to  confine  myself,  while  my  life  and  health  are 
permitted  by  Providence  to  continue,  to  domestic  retire- 
ment and  to  the  studies  and  pursuits  to  which  I  have  been 
accustomed,  and  which  are  suitable  to  that  tranquil  position. 

Be  pleased  to  accept  my  ardent  wishes  for  the  continued 
honor  and  prosperity  of  the  Philadelphia  Bar,  and  for  the 
continued  elevation  and  improvement  of  our  common  coun- 
try, on  which  our  national  character  and  liberties  as  well  as 
personal  security  so  essentially  depend. 

On  the  31  St  day  of  July,  1843,  when  Chancellor 
Kent  attained  the  age  of  eighty  years,  the  members 
of  the  Bar  of  the  State  of  Nevi^  York,  believing  that 
in  that  manner  better  than  in  any  other  they  could 
do  him  honor,  presented  to  him  an  address,  expres- 
sive of  their  profound  respect  and  admiration  for  him 
as  a  man  and  as  a  jurist,  and  including  an  invitation 
to  a  public  dinner.  After  reciting  the  chief  events 
of  his  long  and  useful  life,  the  address  closed  in  this 
eloquent  strain :  — 

Address  of  the  New  York  Bar. 

.  .  .  Although  you  have  attained  an  age  exceeding  the 
ordinary  term   of  human  life,  not   only  is  your  physical 


2  70        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

strength  unsubdued  and  your  mental  vigor  undecayed,  but 
it  is  known  that  your  sympathies  are  as  warm,  your  fceHngs 
as  vivid,  your  hberal  curiosity  as  active,  your  pursuit  of 
truth  as  earnest,  your  enjoyment  of  the  charms  of  eloquence 
and  poetry  and  your  impressions  of  the  beauties  and  sub- 
limity of  nature  as  deep-felt  and  genuine,  as  when  with  the 
high  aspirations  of  youth  you  first  entered  on  your  long  and 
honorable  career. 

You  are,  then,  a  living  example  of  a  certain  and  most 
important  truth  :  that  where  the  habits  of  the  individual 
have  been  temperate  and  virtuous,  and  that  serenity  is  en- 
joyed which  the  consciousness  of  a  well-spent  life  can  alone 
bestow,  where  the  higher  faculties  of  the  mind  continue  to 
be  exercised  and  the  purer  affections  of  the  heart  to  be 
cultivated,  age  has  no  power  over  the  intellect  or  the  will ; 
but  while  life  remains  both  may  continue  to  assert  their 
independence  and  their  supremacy.  "  Ita  enim  "  —  you 
will  thank  us  for  recalling  the  words  of  your  favorite  Cicero 
—  "  Ita  enim  senectus  honesta  est,  si  se  ipsa  defendit,  si 
jus  suum  retinet,  si  nemini  emancipata  est,  si  usque  ad 
extremum  spiritum  dominatur  in  suos." 

But  there  are  higher  considerations  which  this  topic  sug- 
gests. How  fitting  is  it  that  a  life  of  strenuous  and  useful 
and  most  honorable  toil  should  be  followed  by  an  old  age 
such  as  you  now  enjoy  !  How  right  that  the  mild  glories 
of  the  sunset  should  affect  our  hearts  more  than  the  splen- 
dor of  the  day  !  In  the  contemplation  of  an  old  age  so 
cheerful  and  serene,  so  honored  and  beloved,  to  those  who 
have  minds  to  reflect  and  hearts  to  feel  there  is  a  moral 
grandeur  that  the  physical  sublime  can  never  reach.  It 
supplies  a  proof,  deeply  felt  by  those  who  are  capable 
of  understanding  it,  that  the  true  reward  of  virtue,  love, 
gratitude,  and  inward  peace,  even  in  this  life,  is  not  un- 
certain ;  and  in  supplying  this  proof,  it  leads  our  thoughts 
with  reverential  hope  to  that  more  perfect  and   enduring 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        271 

reward  which,  as  we  trust,  is  to  follow  the  crowning  words, 
'•'Well  done,  thou  good  and  faithful  servant." 

In  July,  1846,  Chancellor  Kent  was  greatly  gratified 
by  the  offer  to  his  son,  Judge  William  Kent,  of  the 
Professorship  of  Law  at  Harvard  College.  He  earn- 
estly advised  his  son  to  accept  the  position.  "Judge 
Story  has  elevated  the  post,"  he  wrote,  "  and  given  it 
luster,  and  this  is  a  consideration  you  must  think  of 
for  yourself.  Upon  the  whole,  though  parting  with 
you  from  my  side  gives  me  a  pang,  yet  we  shall  see 
each  other  a  great  deal,  that  is  certain,  and  I  cannot 
be  with  you  always.  My  tenure  of  life  is  short,  and  I 
would  not,  for  the  world,  be  responsible  for  the  loss 
of  that  appointment.  Upon  the  whole,  it  is  probable 
it  will  give  me  vastly  more  pleasure  than  pain  for  the 
residue  of  my  life.  If  you  were  to  remain  at  the  Bar, 
striving  for  business  and  laboring  at  the  oar,  my 
sympathies  for  you  would  destroy  me.  Now  my 
sympathies  will  all  be  joyous.  You  would  succeed, 
with  such  reputation,  and  write  so  well,  so  beautifully, 
so  sensibly,  and  so  eloquently,  and  perhaps  favor  the 
public  with  legal  essays  and  commentaries  a  la  mode 
Story.  But  we  will  talk  more  on  these  things  when 
we  meet,  and  God  grant  it  may  be  in  a  few  days  and 
with  auspicious  health  and  joy." 

The  last  journey  which  Chancellor  Kent  made  was 
to  Cambridge,  to  pay  a  visit  to  his  son.  Professor 
Kent.  This  w^as  in  May,  1847.  On  his  arrival  he 
wrote  a  lengthy  letter  to  his  wife,  dated,  "  At  William's 
Office,  in  the  Dane  Hall,  Cambridge."  He  describes 
minutely  the  events  of  his  journey,  including  a  vivid 
description  of  the    horrors  of  a  night  of  insomnia 


2  72        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

which  beset  him  at  a  hotel  in  Springfield.  The  letter 
is  written  with  all  his  old-time  vivacity,  but  his  health 
was  evidently  declining.  He  was  now  well  nigh  four- 
score and  four  years  of  age,  and  the  light  of  life  was 
flickering.  He  had  passed  a  long,  useful,  and  honor- 
able life.  He  had  reached  the  highest  judicial  posi- 
tions in  his  native  State.  Yale,  Dartmouth,  Columbia, 
and  Harvard  Colleges  had  bestowed  upon  him  their 
highest  honors.  His  family,  well  and  honorably  set- 
tled in  life,  were  about  him.  He  had  nothing  more 
to  wish. 

It  remains  now  only  to  trace  the  peaceful  close  of 
this  long  and  useful  life.  It  was  some  time  after  he 
had  attained  the  age  of  eighty  years  before  even  the 
watchful  eye  of  kindred  affection  could  observe  in  the 
Chancellor  any  evidence  of  declining  strength.  He 
had  been  so  uniformly  active  and  vigorous,  his  spirits 
had  been  always  so  bright,  and  the  hue  of  health  was 
so  permanent  on  his  countenance,  that  his  friends  had 
anticipated  that,  when  the  end  of  life  was  reached,  its 
close  would  be  sudden  and  unexpected.  It  pleased 
Heaven,  however,  to  give  to  his  bodily  strength  a 
gradual  and  peaceful  decline,  while  his  mind  retained 
its  clearness  and  power  to  the  last.  Perhaps,  in  all 
his  long  career,  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life  may  be 
selected  as  his  happiest.  His  external  circumstances 
were  in  every  respect  prosperous.  He  had  gradually 
acquired,  as  the  result  of  his  legal  and  literary  labors, 
an  ample  competency  of  fortune,  and  was  able,  as  he 
was  generous,  to  dispense  assistance  and  comfort  to 
his  children  and  dependents.  The  wife  of  his  youth 
was,  for  sixty-three  years,  the  affectionate  partner  of 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        273 

every  thought  and  faculty.  His  family  was  settled 
around  him.  His  eldest  daughter  and  her  husband 
were  the  inmates  of  his  house ;  his  son,  who  had  re- 
signed his  professorship  to  be  near  him,  lived  in  an 
adjoining  building;  and  his  youngest  daughter,  re- 
turning from  a  temporary  residence  abroad,  and  being 
a  resident  of  Brooklyn,  completed,  with  their  children 
around  him,  that  affectionate  circle,  as  he  expressed 
it,  of  "  Nati  natorum  et  qui  nascentur  ab  illis,"  with 
whom  he  lived  in  the  daily  interchange  of  offices  of 
unbounded  affection  and  confidence. 

His  labors  as  a  lawyer,  though  gradually  becoming 
less  frequent,  never  ceased.  Questions  on  points  of 
law,  family  settlements,  cases  for  arbitration,  and  in- 
quiries as  to  general  and  constitutional  jurisprudence 
were  presented  to  him  from  all  parts  of  the  United 
States,  and  not  infrequently  from  the  British  prov- 
inces, to  the  very  end  of  his  life.  His  readings  on 
Law  always  continued  ;  and  his  perusal  of  the  English 
Reports  and  the  decisions  of  the  different  States  of 
the  Union  was  unremitted,  furnishing  him  with  an- 
notations for  his  Commentaries,  which  were  going 
rapidly  through  successive  editions,  and  became  the 
depository  of  his  vast  legal  erudition.  His  private 
affairs  were  conducted  by  him  with  singular  ability, 
exhibiting  an  exact  method,  order,  and  discretion 
which  never  failed  him  in  the  fluctuating  vicissitudes 
of  pecuniary  affairs,  so  marked  in  the  United  States 
during  the  ten  years  preceding  his  death. 

The  greatest  and  purest  consolation  of  age  was 
found  in  his  literary  readings,  which  were  prosecuted 
at  the  age  of  eighty-four  with  the  same  ardor  and 

18 


2  74        MEMOIRS   OF    CHANCELLOR   KENT 

enjoyment  as  when,  young  in  life,  he  first  entered  on 
the  study  of  the  EngHsh  classics.  In  one  respect  his 
taste  was  peculiar.  While  he  enjoyed  all  the  branches 
of  English  literature,  and  was  indeed  quite  extraor- 
dinary in  the  extent  and  accuracy  of  his  historical 
knowledge,  he  was  drawn  toward  Geography  by  a 
taste  innate  and  irresistible.  In  his  library,  which 
became  very  large  and  varied,  the  books  of  voyages 
and  travels  become  quite  preponderant  and  encroach- 
ing ;  and  it  was  a  source  of  amusement  to  his  friends 
to  observe  the  enthusiasm  with  which  he  traced  the 
discoveries  in  Central  Africa  and  Asia,  and  accompa- 
nied Parry  and  Franklin  in  their  travels  in  the  Arctic 
circles.  He  was  quite  insensible  to  all  raillery  on  this 
point,  and  drew  maps  of  routes,  islands,  and  prom- 
ontories, showing  the  courses  of  the  adventurous 
travelers,  which  his  descendants  preserve  as  valued 
and  characteristic  relics,  though  certainly  not  elegant 
specimens  of  the  topographical  art. 

As  age  drew  on,  he  felt  inclined  to  suspend  the 
annual  tours  which  he  had  so  often  undertaken,  and 
so  keenly  enjoyed ;  and  as  a  substitute,  he  purchased 
in  1837  a  cottage  in  the  country,  at  a  short  distance 
from  New  York,  in  Essex  County,  in  New  Jersey.  This 
became,  during  the  remainder  of  his  life,  his  summer 
retreat.  Nothing  could  be  simpler  or  more  unpre- 
tending than  the  establishment,  which  was  seated  on 
the  sloping  side  of  a  breezy  hill,  commanding  an  ex- 
tensive prospect  to  the  north  and  west  of  the  Valley 
of  the  Passaic,  with  villages,  churches,  hills,  and  dales ; 
and  there,  from  his  piazza,  he  used  to  watch,  with  his 
family,  and  some  friendly  visitor  from  the  city  never 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT       275 

absent,  the  sun  as  it  set  behind  the  distant  ridge  of  the 
Schooley  Mountains.  It  was  a  tranquil,  soHtary,  and 
beautiful  spot. 

His  winters  were  passed  in  the  city.  The  excite- 
ment of  party  politics  had  subsided  with  him.  The 
principles  of  what  he  deemed  conservative  statesman- 
ship were  indeed  never  abandoned,  and  he  unswerv- 
ingly supported,  in  all  its  contests  and  vicissitudes, 
the  party  which  he  believed  most  faithfully  repre- 
sented them.  But  all  acerbity  of  feeling  was  gone. 
He  was  ready  to  acknowledge  honesty  in  political 
opponents,  and  reverted,  in  conversation,  with  hearty 
praise  to  George  Clinton,  Melancthon  Smith,  and  the 
eminent  leaders  of  the  anti-Federal  party,  whom  in  his 
youth  and  early  manhood  he  had  strenuously  opposed. 
Equally  to  him  was  the  good  feeling  of  the  opposing 
party  extended.  He  was  selected  by  them,  as  much 
as  by  his  own  party,  as  the  umpire  in  controversies. 

In  his  daily  walks  through  the  town,  he  was  univer- 
sally known ;  men  liked  to  observe  his  elastic  step, 
and  graceful  form,  retaining  far  in  age  the  qualities  of 
youth,  and  to  point  him  out  as  a  remarkable  example 
of  protracted  agility  and  strength.  It  was  a  pleasant 
sight  indeed  to  see  his  cheerful  greetings  of  all  he  met, 
poor  or  rich,  mechanic  or  merchant,  and  the  kind 
salutation  which  he  received  from  all. 

Of  his  religious  convictions  but  scant  reference  has 
been  made  in  this  Memoir.  His  recognition  of  the 
indebtedness  of  man  to  the  Father  of  all  Goodness 
was  often  made  evident  in  his  correspondence.  But  it 
was  seldom  that  he  wrote  at  length  upon  religious 
topics.      Indeed,   on  one    occasion,  when  a   corres- 


2  76        MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT 

pondent,  presuming  upon  a  friendly  letter  from  the 
Chancellor,  forced  upon  him  a  long  and  elaborate 
sermon,  in  which  he  did  not  hesitate  to  call  his  friend 
to  account,  and  to  dictate  a  line  of  religious  conduct 
repugnant  to  Mr.  Kent's  ideas  of  free  thought,  the 
Chancellor  replied  at  once,  vindicating  his  right  of 
free  selection,  and  of  individual  liberty  of  thought. 
But  when  in  advanced  life,  he  left  with  his  children 
a  message  of  faith,  recorded  by  his  son,  which  is  in 
itself  alone  a  sufficient  statement  of  the  aged  Chancel- 
lor's belief 

"  Shortly  before  my  father's  death,"  records  Judge 
William  Kent,  "  the  conversation  having  turned  upon 
the  foreign  custom  of  attending  places  of  amusement 
on  Sunday,  my  father  said,  '  I  am  by  no  means  an 
ascetic  in  religion  as  you  know,  yet  I  was  brought  up 
strictly  to  regard  the  Sabbath,  and  I  should  like  my 
children  always  to  regard  it.'  " 

His  manner  became  serious,  and  after  a  few  minutes 
he  went  on  :  — 

"  My  children,  I  wish  to  talk  to  you.  During  my 
early  and  middle  life  I  was,  perhaps,  rather  sceptical 
with  regard  to  some  of  the  truths  of  Christianity. 
Not  that  I  did  not  have  the  utmost  respect  for  religion, 
and  always  read  my  Bible,  but  the  doctrine  of  the 
atonement  was  one  I  never  could  understand,  and  I 
felt  inclined  to  consider  as  impossible  to  be  received 
in  the  way  divines  taught  it.  I  believe  I  was  rather 
inclined  to  Unitarianism ;  but  of  late  years  my  views 
have  altered.  I  believe  in  the  doctrines  of  the  prayer- 
books,  as  I  understand  them,  and  hope  to  be  saved 
through  the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ." 


MEMOIRS   OF   CHANCELLOR   KENT        277 

Some  of  the  family  coming  into  the  room,  he  hastily 
added  :  "  Go,  my  children.  My  object  in  telling  you 
this  is  that,  if  anything  happens  to  me,  you  might 
know,  and  perhaps  it  would  console  you  to  remember, 
that  on  this  point  my  mind  is  clear;  I  rest  my  hopes 
of  salvation  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

The  tidings  of  the  death  of  the  Chancellor  were 
received  by  the  public  and  by  his  many  friends  with 
every  demonstration  of  regret  and  of  grief.  Resolu- 
tions were  passed  by  the  Bar,  the  New  York  Historical 
Society,  and  by  other  bodies.  Personal  friends,  by 
letter,  begged  a  share  in  the  grief  of  the  household. 
As  expressed  by  Francis  Lieber,  in  a  letter  to  Judge 
William  Kent,  "  He  went  to  the  grave  as  it  is  given 
to  few  men.  Having  spent  a  life  of  the  highest  use- 
fulness, acknowledged  at  home  and  abroad,  of  an 
extent  far  beyond  the  common  limits  of  human  exist- 
ence ;  loved,  almost  adored,  by  his  family,  and  cher- 
ished with  venerating  affection  by  bands  of  friends ; 
active  almost  to  the  very  hmit  of  his  life,  —  he  was 
allowed  to  depart  in  the  arms  of  his  own,  leaving  a 
name  loved  as  long  as  they  live,  and  honored  as  long 
as  our  nation  shall  exist.  Are  there  many  mortals 
who  can  compare  with  him?  " 


APPENDIX 

CHANCELLOR    KENT'S    MEMORIES    OF 
ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 


CHANCELLOR   KENT'S  MEMORIES   OF 
ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

New  York,  December  lo,  1832. 
To  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Hamilton  : 

Dear  Madam,  —  You  have  requested  of  me  "  a  detailed 
reply  to  the  several  queries  subjoined,"  and  you  express  a 
hope  that  you  may  not  in  that  request  "  be  regarded  as 
asking  more  than  my  friendship  to  your  father  and  hus- 
band would  readily  grant."  I  beg  leave  to  assure  you  that 
it  is  sufficient  that  the  application  comes  from  the  daughter 
of  General  Schuyler  and  the  widow  of  General  Hamilton, 
to  make  it  command  all  the  information  within  my  power 
to  impart ;  and  I  have  only  to  regret  that  neither  my 
memory  nor  the  materials  before  me  are  sufficient  to  meet 
the  extent  of  my  wishes  or  to  equal  your  expectations. 
The  following  are  the  questions  you  have  proposed  :  — 

1.  "  Your  early  acquaintance  with  my  husband  —  when, 
and  the  circumstances  of  it?" 

2.  "  His  appearance  and  manners  then?" 

3.  "  Any  facts  connected  with  his  history  at  the  Bar  be- 
fore he  went  into  the  Treasury,  or  on  his  return  from  it?  " 

4.  "  Incidents  connected  with  his  services  in  the  Con- 
vention at  Poughkeepsie,  and  his  last  speech  there?" 

5.  "  Its  effects  on  the  decision  of  the  Convention?" 

6.  "  His  characteristic  manner  of  speaking ;  also  the 
manner  of  Mr.  Jay,  Chancellor  Livingston,  and  the  prin- 
cipal opponents?" 


282 


APPENDIX 


7.  "  My  father's  agency  in  adopting  the  Constitution, 
and  Judge  Benson's?  " 

8.  "  Any  anecdotes  illustrative  of  his  character  or  strong 
expressions?" 

There  are  some  points  mentioned  in  those  queries  on 
which  I  have  not  the  requisite  information,  but  as  you 
request  me  not  to  consider  the  inquiries  as  "  limiting  the 
answers,"  and  as  you  suggest  that  my  "information  will 
relate  mostly  to  his  political  and  civil  life,"  I  cannot  com- 
plain that  you  have  not  given  me  "ample  room  and  verge 
enough."  I  shall  therefore,  with  your  permission,  instead 
of  a  special  and  narrow  reply  to  each  question,  return  one 
general  answer  embracing  the  whole  range  of  inquiry,  and 
endeavor  to  give  a  brief  but  faithful  detail  of  the  profes- 
sional and  political  life  of  your  eminent  husband,  so  far  as 
the  same  came  within  my  own  knowledge  or  contemporary 
observation.  It  will  be  convenient,  and  will  tend  to  give 
method  and  perspicuity  to  my  recollections,  if  we  divide 
the  historical  sketches  of  your  husband's  life  in  the  follow- 
ing manner :  — 

1 .  From  my  first  personal  knowledge  of  General  Hamil- 
ton, in  1782,  to  the  call  of  the  Convention  in  1787. 

2.  His  services  in  relation  to  the  origin  and  adoption  of 
the  Federal  Constitution. 

3.  His  subsequent  life. 


My  personal  acquaintance  with  General  Hamilton  did 
not  commence  until  some  time  after  the  conclusion  of  the 
American  War,  but  I  was  not  then  ignorant  of  the  character 
which  he  had  long  sustained,  nor  of  the  reputation  which 
he  had  acquired  by  his  talents  and  services.     While  I  was 


APPENDIX  283 

a  clerk  in  the  office  of  Egbert  Benson,  the  Attorney- 
General,  as  early  as  1782,  I  heard  it  said  that  he  was  the 
author  of  some  essays  which  had  recently  appeared  in  one 
of  the  public  prints  under  the  signature  of  The  Continen- 
talist ;  the  purport  of  which  was  to  show  that  the  powers 
of  Congress  under  the  confederation  were  insufficient  and 
ought  to  be  enlarged.  Those  essays  I  never  saw,  but 
General  Hamilton  attracted  my  particular  observation  as 
early  as  July,  1782,  when  he  was  appointed  a  delegate  in 
Congress  from  this  State.  The  Legislature  was  then  sitting 
at  Poughkeepsie,  where  I  resided,  and  there  I  saw  him  for 
the  first  time,  though  I  was  too  young  and  too  obscure  to 
seek  or  to  merit  any  personal  acquaintance.  He  was  in 
company  with  Mr.  Benson  and  Colonel  Lawrence,  and  his 
animated  and  didactic  conversation,  far  superior  to  ordi- 
nary discourse  in  sentiment,  language,  and  manner,  and  his 
frank  and  manly  deportment  interested  and  engrossed  my 
attention. 

In  pursuance  of  that  appointment  he  took  his  seat  in 
Congress  for  the  first  time  in  the  November  following,  and 
we  there  find  him  promptly  and  efficiently  engaged  in  the 
promotion  of  measures  calculated  to  relieve  the  embar- 
rassed state  of  the  public  finances,  and  to  avert  the  difficul- 
ties and  dangers  which  beset  the  Union  of  the  States.  His 
efforts  to  reanimate  the  powers  of  the  Confederation,  and 
to  infuse  life,  vigor,  and  credit  into  that  languishing  system, 
were  incessant  and  masterly ;  and  he  was  sustained  in  all 
his  views  and  assisted  in  all  his  measures  by  his  friend  and 
illustrious  coadjutor,  James  Madison,  Jun.  Other  members 
of  Congress  at  that  period  may  have  been  entitled  to  an 
equal  share  of  merit,  but  their  services  do  not  appear  to 
have  been  equally  conspicuous  and  distinguished. 

The  proceedings  of  Congress  took  a  new  and  more  de- 


284  APPENDIX 

cided  tone  and  character  while  he  was  a  present  and  active 
member,  between  November,  1782,  and  July,  1783.  With- 
in that  period  a  series  of  active,  intrepid,  untiring,  but 
fruitless,  efforts  were  made  to  render  the  National  Gov- 
ernment under  the  Articles  of  Confederation  adequate  to 
the  support  of  the  Union.  It  is  necessary  that  we  should 
make  a  slight  reference  to  the  prominent  proceedings  in 
Congress,  during  the  session  I  refer  to,  in  order  to  perceive 
clearly  and  appreciate  justly  the  high  character  of  those 
efforts,  which  led  on,  step  by  step,  to  the  renewal  and 
consolidation  of  our  Union,  and  to  that  rapid  and  glorious 
elevation  of  our  country  which  distinguished  the  adminis- 
tration of  Washington.  Thus,  on  the  6th  December,  1782, 
a  motion  was  made  by  Mr.  Hamilton  and  carried,  that  the 
Superintendent  of  Finance  represent  to  the  Legislatures  of 
the  several  States,  the  indispensable  necessity  of  complying 
with  the  requisitions  of  Congress  for  raising  specified  sums 
of  money  towards  paying  a  year's  interest  on  the  domestic 
debt  of  the  United  States,  and  defraying  the  estimated  ex- 
penses for  the  year  ensuing ;  and  to  assure  them  that  Con- 
gress was  determined  to  make  the  fullest  justice  to  the 
public  creditors  an  invariable  object  of  their  counsels  and 
exertion. 

On  the  nth  of  the  same  month  he  was  chairman  of  a 
committee  which  reported  the  form  of  an  application  to 
the  Governor  of  Rhode  Island,  urging  in  most  persuasive 
terms  the  necessity  and  reasonableness  of  a  concurrence 
on  the  part  of  that  State  in  the  grant  to  Congress  of  a 
general  import  duty  of  five  per  cent,  in  order  to  raise  a 
fund  for  the  discharge  of  the  public  debt.  The  applica- 
tion was  to  be  accompanied  with  an  assurance  that  such  a 
grant  was  the  most  eiificacious,  the  most  expedient,  and  the 
most  unexceptionable  plan  of  finance  that  Congress  could 


APPENDIX  285 

devise  for  the  occasion ;  and  that  the  increasing  discon- 
tents of  the  army,  the  loud  clamors  of  the  public  creditors, 
and  the  extreme  disproportion  between  the  current  sup- 
plies and  the  demands  of  the  public  service  were  so  many 
invincible  arguments  for  the  fund  recommended  by  Con- 
gress ;  and  that  calamities  of  the  most  menacing  nature 
might  be  anticipated  if  that  expedient  should  fail. 

So  again,  on  the  i6th  December,  Mr.  Hamilton,  Mr. 
Madison,  and  Mr.  Fitzsimmons  made  a  report  of  a  very 
superior  character  in  relation  to  the  national  finances,  and 
in  answer  to  the  objections  of  the  Legislature  of  Rhode 
Island  against  the  grant  of  a  general  impost.  The  same 
discussion  was  afterwards  renewed  on  the  30th  January, 
1783,  by  the  report  of  a  committee  of  which  Mr.  Hamil- 
ton was  a  member,  in  which  it  was  stated  that  Congress 
had  long  been  deeply  impressed  with  the  absolute  neces- 
sity of  taking  measures  to  liquidate  the  public  debts,'  and 
to  secure  the  payment  of  interest  until  the  principal  could 
be  discharged  ;  and  that  the  inability  of  Congress  to  per- 
form its  engagements  with  the  public  creditors,  under  the 
defective  compliance  of  the  States,  was  most  apparent. 
Congress  conceived  it  to  be  its  duty  to  persevere  in  its 
intentions,  and  to  renew  and  extend  its  endeavors  to  pro- 
cure the  establishment  of  revenues  equal  to  the  purpose 
of  funding  all  the  debts  of  the  United  States. 

On  the  20th  March,  1783,  Mr.  Hamilton  submitted  a 
plan  and  recommendation  of  a  duty  of  five  per  cent  a^ 
va/orem  on  imported  goods,  and  a  land  and  house  tax,  to 
create  funds  for  the  discharge  of  the  debts  of  the  Union ; 
for  they  had  been  created,  as  he  observed,  on  the  faith  of 
Congress,  for  the  common  safety,  and  it  was  its  duty  to 
make  every  effort  in  its  power  for  doing  complete  justice 
to  the  public  creditors.     He  likewise,  on  the  2  2d  of  March, 


286  APPENDIX 

as  chairman  of  a  committee,  reported  in  favor  of  a  grant  of 
five  years'  full  pay  to  the  officers  of  the  army,  as  a  commu- 
tation for  the  half  pay  for  life  promised  them  by  Congress. 

At  last,  on  the  i8th  of  April,  1783,  Congress  finally 
agreed  to  recommend  to  the  States  a  grant  of  power  for 
twenty-five  years  to  levy  specified  duties  on  imported 
goods,  to  be  applied  exclusively  to  the  discharge  of  the 
principal  and  interest  of  the  debts  contracted  on  the  faith 
of  the  United  States  for  supporting  the  War,  and  that  other 
funds  for  the  same  purposes  be  supplied  by  the  States. 
Mr.  Madison,  Mr.  Ellsworth,  and  Mr.  Hamilton  were  the 
committee  who  reported  an  address  to  the  States,  to  ac- 
company the  resolution  of  the  i8th  of  April ;  and  it  is  rare 
that  the  records  of  the  United  States  furnish  the  example 
of  a  document  more  replete  with  sound  argument,  or  which 
equals  it  in  pathetic  and  eloquent  exhortations.  But  the 
exertions  of  Mr.  Hamilton  did  not  cease,  nor  was  the 
patience  of  Congress  exhausted,  in  suggesting  and  adopt- 
ing measures  to  preserve  the  public  faith  and  maintain  the 
dignity  and  authority  of  the  Government.  The  master 
spirits  which  animated  and  swayed  the  deliberations  of 
Congress  had  the  merit  at  least  of  unconquerable  perse- 
verance, and  of  preserving  the  national  honor,  while  every 
other  valuable  attribute  of  power  was  lost. 

On  the  2d  May,  1 783,  Mr.  Hamilton  moved  a  resolution 
calling  upon  the  States  in  the  most  earnest  manner  to  make 
such  payments  into  the  common  treasury  as  might  enable 
Congress  to  advance  to  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the 
army  a  part  of  their  pay  before  they  left  the  field,  that  they 
might  return  to  their  respective  homes  with  convenience 
and  satisfaction.  He  was  also  one  of  the  committee  which 
reported  the  resolution  that  the  non-commissioned  officers 
and  soldiers  enlisted  for  the  period  of  the  War  be  allowed 


APPENDIX  287 

their  firearms  and  accoutrements,  as  an  extra  reward  for 
their  long  and  faithful  services.  Nor  was  this  the  only 
occasion  in  which  Colonel  Hamilton  recollected  the  grati- 
tude that  was  due  for  services  in  the  field.  On  the  30th 
December,  1782,  he  was  chairman  of  the  committee  which 
reported  resolutions  highly  honorable  to  Major-General 
the  Baron  de  Steuben.  The  sacrifices  and  services  of  that 
very  meritorious  officer,  says  the  report,  were  deemed  justly 
to  entitle  him  to  the  distinguished  notice  of  Congress,  and 
to  a  generous  compensation. 

On  other  subjects  General  Hamilton,  while  he  held  a 
seat  in  Congress,  showed  equal  solicitude  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  public  faith,  and  the  safety  and  authority  of  the 
Union.  He  was  chairman  of  the  committee  which,  on  the 
30th  May,  1783,  introduced  the  resolution  calling  upon  the 
States  to  remove  every  legal  obstruction  under  their  local 
jurisdictions,  in  the  way  of  the  active  and  faithful  execu- 
tion of  the  fourth  and  sixth  Articles  of  the  Treaty  of  Peace  ; 
and  that  all  future  confiscations  and  prosecutions  for  acts 
done  during  the  War  should  cease ;  and  that  the  several 
States  be  requested  to  conform  to  the  fifth  article  of  the 
Treaty  with  that  spirit  of  moderation  and  liberality  which 
ought  to  characterize  the  measures  of  a  free  and  enlight- 
ened nation.  His  anxiety  to  preserve  the  internal  peace  of 
the  Confederacy  was  manifest  by  the  resolution,  which  he 
seconded  and  supported,  that  the  people  of  the  district 
called  the  New  Hampshire  Grants  —  then,  in  point  of  fact, 
assuming  to  be  an  independent  State  —  be  desired  to  cease 
to  molest  the  persons  or  property  of  those  inhabitants  who 
did  not  acknowledge  their  jurisdiction ;  and  that,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  persons  holding  commissions  under  New 
York  also  forbear  to  exercise  any  authority  under  the  same, 
to  the  end  that  things  might  remain  as  they  were  until  a 


288  APPENDIX 

decision  could  peaceably  be  made  in  the  controversy.  He 
was  likewise  chairman  of  the  committee  which  stated  the 
efforts  which  had  been  made  on  the  part  of  Congress  to 
suppress  the  mutinous  proceedings  of  part  of  the  troops  of 
the  United  States,  who  had  insulted  Congress,  and  which 
eventually  compelled  them,  from  the  want  of  sufficient 
protection  from  the  executive  council  of  Pennsylvania,  to 
remove  from  Philadelphia  to  Princeton  in  New  Jersey. 

I  have  alluded  to  these  documentary  proofs  as  affording 
the  most  authentic  and  the  most  honorable  testimony  to 
the  spirit  and  intelligence  with  which  General  Hamilton 
devoted  himself,  as  early  as  the  year  1782  and  17S3,  and  at 
his  own  youthful  age  of  twenty-five,  to  the  support  of  the 
integrity  and  welfare  of  the  Union.  And  it  will  abundantly 
appear,  in  the  subsequent  history  of  his  life,  that  his  zeal 
for  the  establishment  of  a  national  government,  competent 
to  preserve  us  from  insult  abroad  and  dissensions  at  home, 
and  equally  well  fitted  to  uphold  credit,  to  preserve  liberty, 
and  to  cherish  our  resources,  kept  increasing ;  and  that  his 
views  grew  more  and  more  enlarged  and  comprehensive  as 
we  approached  the  crisis  of  our  destiny.  It  will  hereafter 
appear,  in  the  course  of  these  narrative  recollections,  that 
he  did  more  with  his  pen  and  his  tongue  than  any  other 
man,  not  only  in  reference  to  the  origin  and  adoption  of 
the  Federal  Constitution,  but  also  to  create  and  establish 
public  credit,  and  defend  the  Government  and  its  measures, 
under  the  wise  and  eventful  administration  of  Washington. 

Though  I  was  not,  at  the  time,  conscious  of  the  distin- 
guished merit  of  General  Hamilton  as  a  member  of  Con- 
gress, yet  his  high  character  for  genius,  wisdom,  and  elo- 
quence was  everywhere  known  and  acknowledged,  and 
when,  in  the  winter  of  1784,  his  pamphlet  productions 
under  the  signature  of  Phocion  appeared,  they  excited  a 


APPENDIX  289 

general  sensation.  They  were  addressed  "to  the  con- 
siderate citizens  of  New  York,"  and  their  object  was  to 
protect  the  rights  of  all  classes  of  persons  inhabiting  the 
Southern  District  of  the  State ;  to  put  a  stop  to  every  kind 
of  proscriptive  policy,  and  to  the  creation  of  legislative 
disabilities  and  bills  of  attainder,  as  being  equally  incom- 
patible with  the  obligations  of  the  Treaty  of  Peace,  the 
principles  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  dictates  of  policy. 
The  appeal  to  the  good  sense  and  patriotism  of  the  public 
was  not  in  vain.  It  was  unanswerable  and  irresistible. 
"The  force  of  plain  truth  carried  the  work  along  against 
the  stream  of  prejudice,"  and  it  overcame  every  obstacle, 

A  counter  pamphlet,  under  the  signature  of  Mentor, 
written  by  Doctor  Isaac  Ledyard,  and  representing  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Southern  District  who  had  remained 
within  the  enemy's  lines  as  aliens,  subject  to  penalties  and 
disabilities  in  the  discretion  of  the  Legislature,  was  entirely 
demolished.  A  bill  before  the  House  of  Assembly  for 
putting  various  descriptions  of  persons  out  of  the  protection 
of  government  was  abandoned.  The  rising  generation, 
then  just  entering  on  the  stage  of  action,  readily  imbibed 
those  sentiments  of  temperate  civil  liberty  and  of  sound 
constitutional  law  which  he  had  so  clearly  taught  and  so 
eloquently  inculcated.  The  benign  influence  of  such  doc- 
trines was  happily  felt  and  retained  through  the  whole 
course  of  the  generation  to  whom  they  were  addressed. 
I  speak  for  myself,  as  one  of  that  generation,  that  no  hasty 
productions  of  the  press  could  have  been  more  auspicious. 

In  the  summer  of  1784  Colonel  Hamilton  attended 
the  Circuit  Court  at  Poughkeepsie,  and  I  had  then  an 
opportunity,  for  the  first  time,  of  seeing  him  at  the  Bar  as  a 
counsellor  addressing  the  court  and  jury.  It  was  an  interest- 
ing country  circuit.     Colonel  Lawrence  of  New  York,  Peter 

19 


zgo  APPENDIX 

W.  Yates  of  Albany,  Egbert  Benson  (my  revered  preceptor, 
and  who  still  lives,  a  venerable  monument  of  the  wisdom, 
the  integrity,  the  patriotism,  and  the  intrepidity  of  the  sages 
of  the  Revolution),  and  some  other  gentlemen  of  the  pro- 
fession, whose  names  I  do  not  now  recollect,  attended  the 
court.  I  was  struck  with  the  clear,  elegant,  and  fluent  style 
and  commanding  manner  of  Hamilton.  At  that  day  every- 
thing in  law  seemed  to  be  new.  Our  judges  were  not 
remarkable  for  law  learning.  We  had  no  precedents  of  our 
own  to  guide  us.  English  books  of  practice,  as  well  as 
English  decisions,  were  resorted  to  and  studied  with  the 
scrupulous  reverence  due  to  oracles.  Nothing  was  settled 
in  our  courts.  Every  point  of  practice  had  to  be  investi- 
gated, and  its  application  to  our  courts  and  institutions 
questioned  and  tested.  Mr.  Hamilton  thought  it  necessary 
to  produce  authorities  to  demonstrate  and  to  guide  the 
power  of  the  court,  even  in  the  now  familiar  case  of  putting 
off  a  cause  for  the  circuit,  and  to  show  that  the  power  was  to 
be  exercised,  as  he  expressed  it,  "  in  sound  discretion  and 
for  the  furtherance  of  justice."  He  never  made  any  argu- 
ment in  court  in  any  case  without  displaying  his  habits  of 
thinking,  and  resorting  at  once  to  some  well  founded 
principle  of  law,  and  drawing  his  deductions  logically  from 
his  premises.  Law  was  always  treated  by  him  as  a  science 
founded  on  established  principles.  His  manners  were 
gentle,  affable,  and  kind,  and  he  appeared  to  be  frank,  lib- 
eral, and  courteous  in  all  his  professional  intercourse.  This 
was  my  impression  at  the  time. 

General  Hamilton  was  employed,  while  at  that  circuit,  by 
Major  Brown,  to  defend  him  on  the  trial  of  a  suit  in  trover 
or  trespass  then  pending,  for  seizing  and  converting  to  his 
own  use  British  goods,  under  the  pretence  that  they  were 
the  result  of  illicit  commerce  with  the  enemy.     The  coun- 


APPENDIX  291 

try,  towards  the  close  of  the  American  War,  was  exceed- 
ingly destitute  of  clothing  and  of  all  the  comforts  and 
conveniences  which  British  manufactures  had  formerly 
afforded  us.  The  high  price  of  British  goods  of  all  kinds 
and  the  wants  of  the  country  rendered  the  temptation  to 
illicit  trade  with  the  enemy  almost  irresistible.  The  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  and  the  Legislatures  of  New 
York  and  some  other  States  vainly  endeavored,  by  ordi- 
nances and  statutes  imposing  confiscations  and  penalties, 
to  put  a  stop  to  the  corrupt  and  pernicious  traffic.  The 
defendant  in  the  case  alluded  to  had  been  concerned  in 
the  seizure  of  goods  alleged  to  be  of  that  description, 
though  it  was  understood  at  that  day  that  there  was 
generally  as  much  of  a  predatory  and  lawless  spirit  in  the 
persons  who  seized  as  in  those  who  traded  in  the  noxious 
goods.  The  cause  became  very  interesting.  Peter  W. 
Yates,  one  of  the  leading  counsel  for  the  plaintiff,  was 
subtle,  acute,  dry,  and  practical,  and  he  exceeded  my  high- 
est expectations ;  Colonel  Lawrence  was  graceful,  fluent, 
and  ingenious  ;  but  Colonel  Hamilton,  by  means  of  his  fine 
melodious  voice  and  dignified  deportment,  his  reasoning 
powers  and  persuasive  address,  soared  far  above  all  com- 
petition. His  pre-eminence  was  at  once  and  universally 
conceded.  He  was  pressed  by  his  client  to  appeal  to  the 
feelings  of  the  jury  in  favor  of  the  poor  and  meritorious 
Whigs,  against  the  secret  enemies  of  their  country  in  the 
character  of  traders  in  British  goods.  I  heard  him  say, 
at  the  time,  that  he  would  never  be  found  contending 
against  the  principles  of  Phocion,  and  that  he  told  his 
anxious  client  that  he  could  not  gratify  him  to  the  extent 
of  his  wishes.  He  made,  notwithstanding,  in  point  of 
fact,  whether  he  was  conscious  of  it  or  not,  an  animated 
and  powerful  appeal  to  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  the 


292  APPENDIX 

jury.  The  audience  listened  with  admiration  to  his  im- 
passioned eloquence,  and  they  were  almost  ready  to  yield 
to  the  truth  of  the  suggestion  which  he  threw  into  his 
address,  that  a  British  statesman  had  remarked  that  the 
true  way  to  slacken  the  zeal  and  break  down  the  stern 
devotedness  of  the  American  Whigs  was  to  open  upon 
them  the  flood-gates  of  commerce. 

In  January,  1785, 1  attended  for  the  first  time  the  term 
of  the  Supreme  Court  at  Albany  and  was  admitted  an 
attorney ;  and  I  had  the  satisfaction  to  see  General  Hamil- 
ton come  forward  as  an  advocate  on  a  much  greater  occa- 
sion, and  with  distinguished  luster.  The  case  I  allude 
to  was  the  following :  Chancellor  Livingston  claimed  lands 
lying  on  the  south  bounds  of  the  lower  manor  of  Liv- 
ingston, and  the  claim  was  large  in  amount  of  property. 
In  an  ejectment  suit  brought  by  Chancellor  Livingston,  as 
plaintiff,  against  Hoffman,  the  cause  was  tried  at  the  bar 
of  the  Supreme  Court  at  Albany,  in  October  term,  1784; 
and  though  Mr.  Hamilton  was  one  of  the  counsel  for  the 
defendant,  he  was  not  one  of  the  counsel  assigned  to  sum 
up  the  cause  before  the  jury.  The  cause  was  tried  with 
great  ability  by  Mr.  Ogden  of  New  Jersey  and  Mr.  Ben- 
son, the  Attorney-General,  on  behalf  of  the  defendant. 
Chancellor  Livingston  appeared  at  the  bar  as  an  advocate 
in  his  own  case,  and  his  concluding  address  to  the  jury 
was  said  to  contain  a  boldness  of  illustration  and  a  burst 
of  eloquence  never  before  witnessed  at  our  Bar.  He  re- 
buked severely  the  opposite  counsel  for  their  attacks  on 
the  character  of  one  of  his  ancestors,  relative  to  the  early 
Grants  of  the  Manor,  and  for  "  raking  the  ashes  of  the 
dead  in  the  presence  of  a  great-grandson."  Lie  brought 
his  ancestor  up  from  the  grave  and  led  him  into  court 
to  speak  for   himself,   by  a    daring   metaphor  which  sur- 


APPENDIX  293 

prised  and  confounded  the  audience  as  well  as  the  jury. 
He  carried  his  cause,  as  it  were,  by  a  coup  de  main  and  ob- 
tained a  verdict,  rather  by  the  weight  of  his  character,  and 
the  charm  and  power  of  his  eloquence,  than  by  the  force 
of  evidence,  or  the  merits  of  the  case. 

A  new  trial  was  moved  for  in  January  term,  1785,  on 
the  ground  that  the  verdict  was  against  the  evidence.  Mr. 
Benson,  Colonel  Lawrence,  and  Colonel  Hamilton  were  in 
favor  of  the  motion,  and  Mr.  (afterward  Chancellor)  Lansmg 
and  Chancellor  Livingston  resisted  it.  I  had  the  pleasure 
of  being  present  at  the  argument,  and  was  a  witness  of 
the  contest  of  talent  and  eloquence  between  Chancellor 
Livingston  and  Colonel  Hamilton,  the  brilliant  and  master 
spirits  who  controlled  on  that  occasion.  All  the  cases 
and  reasons  contained  in  the  modem  English  decisions, 
and  especially  those  which  arose  in  the  time  of  Lord 
Mansfield,  and  which  are  so  well  digested  and  elegantly 
illustrated  in  the  third  volume  of  Blackstone's  Commen- 
taries, were  cited  and  urged  in  support  of  the  motion. 
The  Chancellor  contended,  on  the  other  hand,  that  no 
single  authority  was  to  be  found  in  support  of  the  motion, 
in  the  case  of  a  trial  and  verdict  at  bar  in  term  time, 
and  that  the  opposite  counsel,  in  order  to  make  out  their 
case,  were  obliged  to  select  parts  from  each  of  several 
cases,  and  to  make  up  a  piece  of  diversified  mosaic, — 
a  motley  compound,  destitute  equally  of  symmetry  and 
law.  He  compared  the  efforts  of  his  opponents  to  the 
construction  of  their  father's  will  by  Peter  Martin  and 
Jack  in  The  Tale  of  the  Tub,  and  who  had  found  an 
authority  for  the  use  of  shoulder-knots  by  picking  out 
single  letters  in  different  parts  of  the  instrument.  He 
made  a  warm  and  declamatory  eulogy  upon  trial  by  jury, 
and  denounced  with  equal  vehemence  the  judicial  author- 


294  APPENDIX 

ity  of  Lord  Mansfield.  He  considered  that  the  trial  by 
jury,  with  all  the  other  great  leading  principles  of  Eng- 
lish liberty,  came  from  their  German  ancestors,  and  that 
a  disposition  existed  in  the  then  Government  of  England 
to  undermine  their  Saxon  liberties,  and  especially  the  ines- 
timable trial  by  jury.  No  Englishman,  he  observed,  was 
found  worthy  of  the  task ;  a  Scotchman  must  be  selected, 
who  had  the  talents,  subtlety,  and  love  of  power  calcu- 
lated to  produce  the  effect;  and  the  new-fangled  doc- 
trines of  Lord  Mansfield  had  enlarged  and  refined  upon 
the  power  of  awarding  new  trials,  so  as  at  last  to  resolve 
the  trial  by  jury  into  the  discretion  of  the  court.  Our 
constitution  had  guarded  against  the  dangerous  innova- 
tion by  declaring  that  the  trial  by  jury  as  hereafter  used 
should  be  inviolate  forever.  And  yet,  no  sooner  had  we 
established  our  independence  and  organized  our  courts 
than  the  pernicious  doctrines  alluded  to  were  to  be  adopted 
and  called  into  action.  "  What  would  be  the  exclamation 
of  the  Genius  of  Liberty,  if  she  were  now  present  in  this 
assembly,  and  saw  the  same  gentlemen  who  had  so  honor- 
ably wielded  the  sword  of  war  in  her  defence  now 
wielding  the  arbitrary  decrees  of  Lord  Mansfield  for  her 
destruction." 

The  tall  and  graceful  person  of  Chancellor  Livingston, 
and  his  polished  wit  and  classical  taste,  contributed  not  a 
little  to  deepen  the  impression  resulting  from  the  ingenuity 
of  his  argument,  the  vivacity  of  his  imagination,  and  the 
dignity  of  his  station.  Mr.  Hamilton  had  never  before  met 
and  encountered  at  the  Bar  such  a  distinguished  opponent. 
He  appeared  to  be  agitated  with  intense  reflection.  His 
lips  were  in  constant  motion  and  his  pen  rapidly  employed 
during  the  Chancellor's  address  to  the  court.  He  rose  with 
dignity  and  spoke  for  perhaps  two  hours  in  support  of  his 


APPENDIX  295 

motion.  His  reply  was  fluent  and  was  accompanied  with 
great  earnestness  of  manner  and  emphasis  of  expression. 
It  was  marked  by  a  searching  and  accurate  analysis  of  the 
cases  and  a  thorough  and  familiar  acquaintance  with  all  the 
law  and  learning  applicable  to  the  subject.  He  begged 
leave  to  suggest,  in  reference  to  the  same  Tale  of  the  Tub 
that  the  Chancellor's  interest  had  blinded  his  better  judg- 
ment, and,  like  Peter's  influence  over  his  brother,  had  turned 
the  brown  loaf  into  mutton.  He  illustrated  the  fact  that 
the  power  of  awarding  new  trials  in  the  discretion  of  the 
court  had  been  recognized  before  the  time  of  Lord  Mans- 
field, and  that  it  was  a  very  reasonable  and  necessary  power, 
and  a  vast  amelioration  and  improvement  of  the  trial  by 
jury  in  property  concerns.  Without  such  a  salutary  control, 
the  rights  of  property  would  be  unsafe  and  at  the  sport  of 
ignorance  and  prejudice  ;  and  trial  by  jury,  instead  of  being 
deemed  a  blessing,  would  excite  the  disgust  and  contempt 
of  mankind.  The  court  had  no  concern  with  the  political 
opinions  of  Lord  Mansfield,  but  it  was  due  to  truth  to  say 
that  his  profound  learning,  clear  intellect,  and  admirable 
judgment  had  elevated  and  adorned  the  jurisprudence  of 
England  ;  and  by  his  wisdom  and  purity,  while  presiding 
over  the  English  administration  of  law,  he  had  deservedly 
gained  the  reverence  of  his  own  age,  and  his  fame  would 
rest  in  the  admiration  of  posterity. 

It  was  some  time  before  I  had  another  opportunity  of 
hearing  Colonel  Hamilton  speak.  I  was  as  yet  unknown  to 
him,  and  as  I  continued  to  reside  for  several  years  at  Pough- 
keepsie,  I  did  not  usually  attend  the  terms  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  either  at  New  York  or  Albany.  Mr.  Hamilton  was 
called  again  into  public  life,  on  being  elected  a  member  of 
the  Assembly  for  the  City  of  New  York,  in  April,  1786. 
The   destinies  of  this  country  were  at  that  time  rapidly 


296  APPENDIX 

approaching  a  crisis.  The  Confederation  of  the  States  was 
essentially  dissolved,  and  at  the  session  of  the  Legislature, 
in  the  winter  of  1787,  the  active  mind  and  intrepid  spirit 
of  Hamilton  were  displayed  in  various  efforts  to  surmount 
difficulties  and  avert  the  dangers  which  surrounded  us.  The 
State  of  Vermont  was  then  in  the  exercise  of  independent 
sovereignty,  though  not  recognized  in  that  capacity.  His 
object  was  to  relieve  the  State  and  nation  from  such  a 
perilous  state  of  things,  and  he  introduced  a  bill  into  the 
House  of  Assembly,  renewing  the  jurisdiction  of  this  State 
over  the  territory  in  question,  and  preparing  the  way  for  the 
admission  of  that  State  into  the  Union.  The  owners  of 
lands  in  Vermont,  under  grants  from  New  York,  considered 
their  vested  interests  to  be  put  in  jeopardy  by  the  bill,  and 
they  were  permitted  to  be  heard  by  counsel  at  the  bar  of  the 
House  in  opposition  to  it.  Richard  Harrison  addressed 
the  House  in  a  very  interesting  speech,  in  which  he  insisted 
that  the  State  was  bound  to  employ  all  the  means  in  its 
power  to  recover  and  protect  the  rights  and  property  of  its 
citizens,  and  that,  if  it  was  deemed  inexpedient  to  apply 
force,  the  State  was  morally  bound  and  was  abundantly  able 
to  indemnify  its  citizens  for  the  loss  of  their  property. 

He  excited  great  attention  and  respect  by  the  perspicuity 
and  strength  of  his  argument,  and  the  suavity  of  his  manner 
and  address.  Mr.  Hamilton  promptly  met  and  answered, 
in  behalf  of  the  House,  all  the  objections  to  the  bill,  and  he 
showed,  with  his  usual  ability  and  familiar  knowledge  of  the 
principles  of  public  law,  that  the  case  was  one  in  which  the 
State  was  dismembered  by  force  without  the  power  to  pre- 
vent it.  Remonstrances  had  been  exhausted.  It  was  in 
fact  a  revolution,  and  it  was  not  the  duty  of  the  State,  nor 
was  she  bound  by  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  social 
compact,  to  engage  in  a  crusade  which  must  prove  disastrous 


APPENDIX 


297 


and  fruitless,  or  to  undertake  to  indemnify  the  claimants  in 
a  case  of  such  magnitude. 

In  this  same  session  Mr.  Hamilton  made  great  and  manly 
efforts  to  prop  up  and  sustain  the  tottering  fabric  of  the 
Confederation,  and  the  fallen  dignity  of  Congress.  In  his 
comments  upon  Governor  Clinton's  speech,  he  sharply  re- 
buked him  for  refusing  to  call  the  Legislature  at  the  special 
and  earnest  request  of  Congress,  to  take  into  consideration 
their  recommendation  of  a  grant  of  an  impost  to  pay  the 
national  debt.  He  regarded  the  refusal  as  heaping  fresh 
marks  of  contempt  upon  their  authority.  He  pressed  upon 
the  House  the  necessity  of  complying  with  the  recommen- 
dation of  Congress.  His  speech  on  that  subject  was  taken 
down  in  shorthand  by  Francis  Childs  and  published  at 
large  in  his  daily  paper.  It  was  received  and  perused  with 
very  great  interest.  I  well  remember  how  much  it  was 
admired,  for  the  comprehensive  views  which  it  took  of  the 
state  of  the  nation,  the  warm  appeals  which  it  made  to  the 
public  patriotism,  the  imminent  perils  which  it  pointed  out, 
and  the  absolute  necessity  which  it  showed  of  some  such 
financial  measure  to  rescue  the  nation  from  utter  ruin  and 
disgrace. 

His  argument  was  left  unanswered,  without  an  attempt  to 
reply  to  it,  and  the  proposition  to  accede  to  the  grant  to 
Congress  of  the  impost  was  rejected  by  a  silent  vote.  But 
a  new  era  was  at  hand.  The  public  mind  had  become  pre- 
pared for  a  reorganization  and  enlargement  of  the  powers 
of  the  National  Government.  General  Hamilton  was  des- 
tined to  display  his  exalted  talents,  and  his  ardent  devoted- 
ness  to  his  country's  glory,  on  a  broader  theater  and  in  a 
more  illustrious  course  of  public  action.  In  this  same 
session  he  was  appointed  one  of  the  three  delegates  from 
this  State    to  the  General   Convention  recommended    by 


298  APPENDIX 

Congress  to  be  held  at  Philadelphia  in  May,  1787.  The 
sole  and  express  purpose  of  that  convention  was  to  revise 
the  Articles  of  Confederation,  and  report  to  Congress  such 
alterations  as  should,  when  agreed  to,  render  the  Federal 
Constitution  adequate  to  the  exigencies  of  Government  and 
the  preservation  of  the  Union. 


II 


The  second  branch  of  the  inquiry  brings  me  to  con- 
sider the  services  of  General  Hamilton  in  relation  to  the 
origin  and  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  I  never 
had  any  means  of  information  respecting  the  extent  and 
merit  of  those  services,  except  such  as  were  accessible  to 
the  public  at  large.  It  was  a  remark  of  the  Hon.  W.  S. 
Johnson,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Convention  from  Con- 
necticut (and  which  remark  was  mentioned  to  me  from  a 
very  authentic  source  about  that  period,  though  I  cannot 
now  recollect  the  precise  time),  that  if  the  Constitution 
should  prove  to  be  a  failure,  Mr.  Hamilton  would  be  less 
responsible  than  any  other  member,  for  he  frankly  pointed 
out  to  the  Convention  what  he  apprehended  to  be  its  in- 
firmities ;  and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  if  it  should  operate 
well,  the  nation  would  be  more  indebted  to  him  than  to 
any  other  individual,  for  no  one  labored  more  faithfully 
than  he  did,  nor  with  equal  activity,  to  give  the  Constitution 
a  fair  trial,  by  guarding  against  every  evil  tendency,  and  by 
clothing  it  with  ail  the  attributes  and  stability  requisite  for 
its  safety  and  success,  and  compatible  with  the  principles 
of  the  republican  theory. 

This  was  the  substance,  though  I  cannot  give  the  exact 
words  of  the  remark,  and  it  is  confirmed  by  all  our  con- 


APPENDIX  299 

temporary  information.  Mr.  Hamilton's  avowed  object  was 
to  make  the  experiment  of  a  great  federative  republic, 
moving  in  the  largest  sphere  and  resting  entirely  on  a 
popular  basis,  as  complete,  satisfactory,  and  decisive  as 
possible.  He  considered  the  best  interests  and  happiness 
of  mankind  as  deeply,  and  perhaps  finally,  involved  in  the 
experiment.  He  knew  and  said  that  no  other  government 
but  a  republic  would  be  admitted  or  endured  in  this  coun- 
try. Experimental  propositions  were  made  in  the  Conven- 
tion and  received  as  suggestions  for  consideration,  and  he 
has  stated  himself  that  the  highest-toned  proposition  which 
he  ever  made  was  that  the  President  and  Senate  should  be 
elected  by  electors  chosen  by  the  people,  and  that  they, 
as  well  as  the  judges,  should  hold  their  offices  during  good 
behavior,  and  that  the  House  of  Representatives  should  be 
elected  triennially. 

But  his  opinion  essentially  changed  during  the  progress 
of  the  discussions,  and  he  became  satisfied  that  it  would  be 
dangerous  to  the  public  tranquillity  to  elect,  by  popular 
elections,  a  Chief  Magistrate  with  so  permanent  a  tenure  ; 
and  toward  the  close  of  the  convention  his  subsequent 
plan  gave  to  the  office  of  President  a  duration  of  only  three 
years.  He  remained  with  the  Convention  to  the  last, 
though  his  colleagues,  Robert  Yates  and  John  Lansing, 
Junior,  had  left  it  some  weeks  before ;  singly  representing 
this  State,  he  heartily  assented  to  and  signed  the  Constitu- 
tion. It  appears  to  me,  therefore,  that  his  friend  Gouver- 
neur  Morris  did  him  great  injustice  when  he  represented 
him,  according  to  the  correspondence  contained  in  Mr. 
Sparks'  "  Life  of  Gouverneur  Morris,"  as  having  "  had  little 
share  in  forming  the  Constitution,"  and  as  "  hating  repub- 
lican government,  because  he  confounded  it  with  demo- 
cratical  government."     All  the  documentary  proof  and  the 


300  APPENDIX 

current  observation  at  the  time,  lead  us  to  the  conclusion 
that  he  surpassed  all  his  contemporaries  in  his  exertions  to 
create,  recommend,  adopt,  and  defend  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States. 

All  his  actions  and  all  his  writings  as  a  public  man  show 
that  he  was  the  uniform,  ardent,  and  inflexible  friend  of 
justice  and  of  national  civil  liberty.  He  had  fought  for 
our  republic  during  the  American  War.  In  his  early  pro- 
duction as  Phocion  he  declared  that  "  the  noble  struggle  we 
had  made  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  had  occasioned  a  kind 
of  revolution  in  human  sentiment ;  we  had  the  greatest 
advantages  for  promoting  it  that  ever  a  people  had  ;  the 
influence  of  our  example  had  penetrated  the  gloomy  regions 
of  despotism,  and  had  pointed  the  way  to  inquiries  which 
might  shake  it  to  its  deepest  foundations."  That  immortal 
work  The  Federalist  is  the  most  incontestable  evidence  of 
his  fervent  attachment  to  the  liberties  of  this  country,  and 
of  his  extreme  solicitude  for  the  honor  and  success  of  the 
republican  system.  His  recorded  speeches  in  the  State 
Convention,  as  taken  down  in  short  hand  at  the  time  by 
Mr.  Childs,  and  written  out  by  him  in  the  evenings  at  my 
house,  contain  the  same  sentiments,  coming  fresh  and  fervent 
from  his  own  lips.  "  I  presume  I  shall  not  be  disbelieved," 
he  said,  "  when  I  declare,  that  the  establishment  of  a  repub- 
lican government,  on  a  safe  and  solid  basis,  is  an  object  of 
all  others  the  nearest  and  most  dear  to  my  heart." 

General  Hamilton  confound  republican  witli  democrat- 
ical  government !  It  is  contradicted  by  the  whole  tenor 
of  his  life.  While  he  admitted  that  the  petty  repub- 
lics of  Greece  and  Italy  were  kept  in  a  state  of  perpetual 
vibration  between  the  extremes  of  tyranny  and  anarchy,  he 
declared,  in  the  9th  number  of  The  Federalist,  that  "  the 
efficacy  of  various  principles  is  now  well  understood,  which 


APPENDIX  301 

were  either  not  known  at  all  or  imperfectly  known  to  the 
ancients.  The  regular  distribution  of  power  into  distinct 
departments ;  the  introduction  of  legislative  balances  and 
checks ;  the  institution  of  courts  composed  of  judges  hold- 
ing their  offices  during  good  behavior ;  the  representation 
of  the  people  in  the  Legislature  by  deputies  of  their  own 
election,  —  these  are  means,  and  powerful  means,  by  which 
the  excellences  of  republican  government  may  be  retained 
and  its  imperfections  lessened  or  avoided."  If  he  doubted 
of  its  success,  from  his  knowledge  of  history  and  his  pro- 
found reflections  upon  the  infirmities  and  corrupt  passions 
of  mankind,  he  was  none  the  less  anxious  to  meet  those 
inherent  difficulties,  by  a  skillful  and  judicious  structure  of 
the  republican  machinery  of  government.  Nor  ought  it  to 
be  forgotten  that  one  of  the  last  proofs  which  he  gave  of 
his  inextinguishable  devotion  to  the  popular  rights  of  his 
countrymen  was  his  gratuitous  and  glorious  forensic  effort 
in  favor  of  trial  by  jury  and  the  liberty  of  the  press. 

At  the  October  term  of  the  Supreme  Court  at  Albany, 
in  1787,  I  was,  for  the  first  time,  personally  introduced  to 
Colonel  Hamilton.  I  had  the  honor  of  dining  at  your 
father's  house,  in  company  with  him  and  several  other 
gentlemen,  and  as  the  new  Constitution  had  just  then 
appeared,  it  was  of  course  the  engrossing  topic  of  con- 
versation. I  was  a  fixed  and  diffident  listener,  without 
presuming  to  intrude  at  all  into  the  discussions  of  such 
sages.  General  Schuyler  was  full  of  lively,  spirited,  and 
instructive  reflections,  and  he  went  into  details,  showing, 
in  his  usual  calculating  manner,  the  great  expense  and 
complicated  provisions  of  our  local  financial  systems,  and 
the  order,  simplicity,  and  economy  that  would  attend  one 
national  system  of  revenue. 

Mr.  Hamilton  appeared  to  be  careless  and  desultory  in 


302  APPENDIX 

his  remarks,  and  it  occurred  to  me  afterwards  how  little 
did  I  then  suppose  that  he  was  deeply  meditating  the  plan 
of  the  immortal  work  of  The  Federalist.  In  the  latter  part 
of  the  same  month  of  October,  the  essays  which  compose 
the  volumes  of  The  Federalist  were  commenced  in  the 
New  York  papers.  Three  or  four  numbers  were  published 
in  the  course  of  a  week,  and  they  were  not  concluded  until 
nearly  the  time  of  the  New  York  Convention  in  June,  1788. 
Those  essays,  as  they  successively  appeared,  were  sought 
after  and  read,  with  the  greatest  avidity  and  constantly  in- 
creasing admiration,  by  all  persons  favorable  to  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Constitution.  Colonel  Hamilton  was  very  soon 
and  very  generally  understood  to  be  the  sole,  or  the  prin- 
cipal, author.  As  the  small  and  humble  Poughkeepsie 
Journal  was  an  incompetent  vehicle  for  the  republication 
of  them,  I  undertook  at  first  to  make  an  abridgment,  or 
abstract,  of  them  for  that  paper,  and  it  was  the  only  news- 
paper then  printed  in  this  State,  out  of  the  cities  of  New 
York  and  Albany ;  but  this  was  soon  found  to  be  imprac- 
ticable, and  that  if  it  could  be  done  they  would  lose  all 
their  interest  and  effect.  The  essays  had  grown  in  number 
sufficient  for  a  small  volume  early  in  the  spring  of  1 788, 
and  the  first  part  of  them,  to  the  extent  of  thirty-six  num- 
bers, were  collected  and  reprinted,  and  a  large  number  of 
the  volumes  were  sent  to  me  at  Poughkeepsie  for  gratui- 
tous distribution.  My  former  master,  mentor,  and  friend. 
Judge  Benson,  attended  with  me  a  county  meeting  in 
Dutchess,  called  for  the  nomination  of  delegates  to  the 
Convention,  and  the  volumes  were  there  circulated  to  the 
best  of  our  judgments. 

The  essays  composing  The  Federalist  made,  at  the  time, 
a  wonderful  impression  upon  reflecting  men.  The  neces- 
sity and  importance  of  the  union  of  the  States,  the  utter 


APPENDIX 


303 


incompetency  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation  to  maintain 
that  union,  their  fundamental  and  fatal  defects,  the  infirm- 
ities which  seemed  to  be  inherent  in  all  ancient  and  mod- 
ern confederacies,  and  the  disasters  which  had  usually 
attended  them,  and  finally,  the  absolute  necessity  of  a  gov- 
ernment organized  upon  the  principles,  and  clothed  with 
the  powers  and  attributes  of  that  which  was  then  presented 
to  the  judgment  of  the  American  people,  —  were  all  of  them 
topics  of  vast  magnitude  and  affecting  most  deeply  all  our 
foreign  and  domestic  concerns.  They  were  discussed  in 
a  masterly  manner,  and  with  a  talent,  strength,  information, 
and  eloquence  to  which  we  had  not  been  accustomed. 
The  appeal  to  the  good  sense  and  patriotism  of  the  coun- 
try was  not  made  in  vain.  It  usually  met  with  a  warm 
reception  in  frank  and  liberal  minds,  not  blinded  by  preju- 
dice, nor  corrupted  by  self-interest,  nor  enslaved  by  party 
discipline. 

The  New  York  Convention  assembled  at  Poughkeepsie 
on  the  17th  June,  1788.  It  formed  the  most  splendid 
constellation  of  the  sages  and  patriots  of  the  Revolution 
which  I  had  ever  witnessed,  and  the  intense  interest  with 
which  the  meeting  of  the  Convention  was  anticipated  and 
regarded  can  now  scarcely  be  conceived  and  much  less 
felt.  As  I  then  resided  in  that  village,  I  laid  aside  all 
other  business  and  avocations,  and  attended  the  Conven- 
tion as  a  spectator,  daily  and  steadily,  during  the  whole 
six  weeks  of  its  session,  and  was  an  eye  and  an  ear  witness 
to  everything  of  a  public  nature  that  was  done  or  said. 
The  Convention  was  composed  of  sixty-five  members,  and 
of  them  nineteen  were  Federalists,  or  in  favor  of  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Constitution,  and  forty-six  were  Anti- Federalists, 
or  against  the  adoption  of  it  without  previous  amendments. 
Not  a  member  of  that   Convention   is  now  living.     The 


304 


APPENDIX 


remark  will  equally  apply,  as  I  believe,  with  but  one  ex- 
ception besides  myself,  to  every  man  who  was  then  a  house- 
keeper either  in  the  village  or  its  environs.  That  bright 
and  golden  age  of  the  Republic  may  now  be  numbered 
"  with  the  years  beyond  the  flood,"  and  I  am  left  almost 
alone,  to  recall  and  enjoy  the  enchanting  vision. 

The  Convention  combined  the  talents,  experience,  and 
weight  of  character  of  some  of  the  most  distinguished  men 
in  the  State.  Most  of  them  had  been  disciplined  in  the 
discussions,  services,  and  perils  of  the  Revolution.  The 
principal  speakers  on  the  Federal  side  were  Mr.  Jay  (then 
Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs),  Chancellor  Livingston,  Mr. 
Duane  (then  Mayor  of  New  York),  Mr.  Harrison,  and  Colonel 
Hamilton.  On  the  other  side  they  were  the  elder  Gover- 
nor Clinton,  Mr.  (afterwards  Chancellor)  Lansing,  Mr. 
Jones  (afterwards  Recorder  of  New  York),  John  Williams 
of  Washington  County,  and  Gilbert  Livingston  and  Me- 
lancthon  Smith,  delegates  from  Dutchess.  There  was  no 
difificulty  in  deciding  at  once  on  which  side  of  the  house 
the  superiority  in  debate  existed,  yet  in  the  ordinary  range 
of  the  discussion,  it  was  found  that  the  dignity,  candor,  and 
strength  of  Jay,  the  polished  address  and  elegant  erudition 
of  Chancellor  Livingston,  the  profound  sagacity  and  ex- 
haustive researches  of  Hamilton,  were  met  with  equal  pre- 
tensions by  their  opponents,  supported  by  the  simplicity 
and  unpretending  good  sense  of  Clinton,  the  popular  opin- 
ions and  plausible  deductions  of  Lansing,  the  metaphysical 
mind,  prepossessing  plainness,  and  embarrassing  subtleties 
of  Smith. 

Mr.  Hamilton  maintained  the  ascendency  on  every  ques- 
tion, and  being  the  only  person  present  who  had  signed 
the  Constitution,  he  felt  and  sustained  the  weight  of  the 
responsibility  which  belonged  to  his  party.     He  was  indis- 


APPENDIX  305 

putably  pre-eminent,  and  all  seemed,  as  by  a  common  con- 
sent, to  concede  to  him  the  burden  and  the  honor  of  the 
debate.  Melancthon  Smith  was  equally  the  most  promi- 
nent and  the  most  responsible  speaker  on  the  Anti-Federal 
side  of  the  Convention.  There  was  no  person  to  be  com- 
pared to  him  in  his  powers  of  acute  and  logical  discussion. 
He  was  Mr.  Hamilton's  most  persevering  and  formidable 
antagonist. 

But  even  Smith  was  routed  in  every  contest.  As  Hamil- 
ton had  been  a  leading  member  of  the  National  Conven- 
tion and  a  leading  writer  of  The  Federalist,  his  mind  had 
become  familiar  with  the  principles  of  Federal  government 
and  with  every  topic  of  debate,  and  it  was  prompt,  ardent, 
energetic,  and  overflowing  with  an  exuberance  of  argument 
and  illustration.  The  three  principal  topics  of  discussion 
in  which  Mr.  Hamilton  was  most  distinguished  and  most 
masterly,  were  :  ( i )  On  the  importance  of  the  Union,  the 
defects  of  the  Confederation,  and  the  just  principles  of 
representation.  (2)  On  the  requisite  tenure  and  stability 
of  the  Senate.  (3)  On  the  power  of  taxation,  and  the  re- 
served rights  of  the  States.  On  each  of  these  subjects  he 
bestowed  several  speeches,  some  of  which  were  employed 
in  refutation  and  reply. 

He  generally  spoke  with  much  animation  and  energy  and 
with  considerable  gesture.  His  language  was  clear,  nervous, 
and  classical.  His  investigations  penetrated  to  the  founda- 
tion and  reason  of  every  doctrine  and  principle  which  he 
examined,  and  he  brought  to  the  debate  a  mind  filled  with 
all  the  learning  and  precedents  applicable  to  the  subject. 
He  never  omitted  to  meet,  examine,  and  discover  the  strength 
or  weakness,  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  every  proposition  with 
which  he  had  to  contend.  His  candor  was  magnanimous 
and  rose  to  a  level  with  his  abilities.      His  temper  was  spir- 

20 


3o6  APPENDIX 

ited  but  courteous,  amiable  and  generous,  and  he  frequently 
made  pathetic  and  powerful  appeals  to  the  moral  sense  and 
patriotism,  the  fears  and  hopes  of  the  assembly,  in  order  to 
give  them  a  deep  sense  of  the  difficulties  of  the  crisis  and 
prepare  their  minds  for  the  reception  of  the  Constitution. 

The  style  and  manner  of  Smith's  speaking  was  dry,  plain, 
and  syllogistic,  and  it  behooved  his  adversary  to  examine 
well  the  ground  on  which  they  started,  and  not  to  concede 
too  much  at  the  beginning,  or  he  would  find  it  somewhat 
embarrassing  to  extricate  himself  from  a  subtle  web  of  sophis- 
try, unless  indeed  he  happened  to  possess  the  giant  strength 
of  Hamilton,  which  nothing  could  withstand.  Mr.  Smith 
was  a  man  of  remarkable  simplicity,  and  of  the  most  gentle, 
liberal,  and  amiable  disposition.  Though  I  felt  strong  polit- 
ical prejudices  against  Governor  Clinton,  as  the  leader  of 
the  Anti-Federal  party,  yet  during  the  course  of  that  Con- 
vention, I  became  very  favorably  struck  with  the  dignity 
with  which  he  presided,  and  with  his  unassuming  and  modest 
pretensions  as  a  speaker.  It  was  impossible  not  to  feel 
respect  for  such  a  man,  and  for  a  young  person  not  to  be 
somewhat  over-awed  in  his  presence,  when  it  was  apparent 
in  all  his  actions  and  deportment  that  he  possessed  great 
decision  of  character  and  a  stern  inflexibility  of  purpose. 

The  arguments  used  by  Colonel  Hamilton  in  the  debates 
in  the  Convention  were  substantially  the  same  which  he  had 
before  employed  in  The  Fedei-alist.  They  could  not  well 
have  been  any  other,  for  he  had  already  urged,  in  support 
of  the  Constitution  all  the  leading  considerations  which  had 
led  to  the  plan  of  it,  and  which  guided  the  skill  of  the  artists. 
The  wisdom  of  the  commentator  was  now  repeated  and  en- 
forced by  the  eloquence  of  the  orator. 

In  his  opening  speech  Mr.  Hamilton  preliminarily  ob- 
served that  it  was  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the  Con- 


APPENDIX  307 

vention  should  be  thoroughly  and  deeply  impressed  with  a 
conviction  of  the  necessity  of  the  Union  of  the  States.  If 
they  could  but  once  be  entirely  satisfied  of  that  great  truth, 
and  would  duly  reflect  upon  it,  their  minds  would  then  be 
prepared  to  admit  the  necessity  of  a  government  of  similar 
powers  and  organization  with  the  one  before  them,  to  up- 
hold and  preserve  that  Union.  It  was  equally  so,  he  said 
by  way  of  illustration,  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Immortality 
of  the  Soul,  and  he  believed  with  Doctor  Young  that  doubts 
on  that  subject  were  one  great  cause  of  modern  infidelity; 
for  to  convince  men  that  they  have  within  them  immaterial 
and  immortal  spirits  is  going  very  far  to  prepare  their  minds 
for  the  ready  reception  of  Christian  truth. 

After  pointing  out  the  radical  defects  of  the  Confedera- 
tion, and  vindicating  the  popular  basis  of  the  new  Constitu- 
tion, he  declared  his  convictions  that  the  latter  was  a  genuine 
specimen  of  a  representative  and  republican  government ; 
and  he  hoped  and  trusted  that  we  had  found  a  cure  for 
our  evils,  and  that  the  new  government  would  prove,  in  an 
eminent  degree,  a  blessing  to  the  nation.  He  concluded 
his  first  great  speech  with  the  Patriot's  Prayer,  "  Oh,  save 
my  country,  Heaven  !  "  in  allusion  to  the  brave  Cobham, 
who  fell,  "  his  ruling  passion  strong  in  death." 

His  two  speeches  on  the  organization,  powers,  and  stability 
of  the  Senate  were  regarded  at  the  time  as  the  best  speci- 
mens which  the  debates  afforded  of  the  ability  and  wisdom 
of  a  consummate  statesman.  They  were  made  in  opposition 
to  a  proposed  amendment  to  the  Constitution  that  no  per- 
son should  be  eligible  as  a  Senator  for  more  than  six  years 
in  any  term  of  twelve  years,  and  that  they  should  at  all 
times,  within  the  period  of  six  years,  be  subject  to  recall  by 
the  State  Legislatures,  and  to  the  substitution  of  others. 
Mr.  Hamilton  on  that  occasion  took  large  and  philosophical 


3o8  APPENDIX 

views  of  the  nature  of  man,  his  interests,  his  passions,  his 
pursuits,  his  duties ;  and  he  drew  his  deductions  from  the 
end  and  design  of  government,  the  settled  principles  of 
policy,  and  the  history  of  all  other  free  governments,  ancient 
and  modern.  He  discovered  equally  an  ardent  zeal  for  the 
success  of  popular  government,  and  a  correct  knowledge  of 
those  infirmities  which  had  invariably  attended  it.  Insta- 
bility and  a  fluctuating  policy  were  the  prominent  features  in 
most  republican  systems,  and  the  tendency  of  such  vicious 
defects  was  to  destroy  all  sense  of  pride  and  national  char- 
acter, and  to  forfeit  the  respect  and  confidence  of  other 
nations.  He  contended,  therefore,  that  in  all  rational  pol- 
icy we  ought  to  infuse  a  principle  of  strength  and  sta- 
bility into  the  structure  of  our  national  government,  by 
the  creation  of  a  senatorial  branch,  which  should  be  com- 
paratively small  in  number,  and  appointed  for  considerable 
periods  of  time,  and  inspired  with  a  sense  of  independence 
in  the  exercise  of  its  powers.  Upon  no  other  plan  would 
the  Senate,  either  in  its  legislative  or  executive  character,  be 
able  to  perform  its  functions,  as  the  balance-wheel  of  the 
machine  ;  or  form  on  the  one  hand  a  salutary  check  to  the 
mischiefs  of  misguided  zeal  and  a  fluctuating  policy  in  the 
more  popular  branch,  and  on  the  other  to  the  abuses  and 
misrule  of  the  President,  in  the  exercise  of  the  treaty  and 
the  appointing  powers. 

The  tendency  of  federative  governments,  as  all  history 
taught  us,  was  to  weakness  and  dissolution,  by  gradual  and 
steady  encroachments  of  the  members  upon  the  national 
authority.  Our  own  experience  under  the  Articles  of  Con- 
federation was  a  monitory  example  before  our  eyes  of  this 
fatal  tendency.  Local  governments  more  readily  concen- 
trated popular  sympathies  and  prejudices.  The  affections 
naturally  grew  languid  in  proportion  to  the  expansion  of 
the  circle  in  which  they  moved. 


APPENDIX 


309 


Though  Mr.  Hamilton  considered  that  amendment  as 
tending  to  destroy  the  dignity  and  stabiUty  of  the  national 
Senate,  and  give  the  State  Legislatures  a  fatal  control  in 
their  discretion  over  the  legislative  and  executive  authorities 
of  the  Union,  it  was  nevertheless  adopted  by  a  vote  of  all 
the  Anti-Federal  members  of  the  Convention,  and  it  was 
one  of  the  recommendatory  amendments  annexed  to  the 
ratification  of  the  instrument.  During  the  sitting  of  the 
Convention,  information  was  received  that  New  Hampshire 
had  adopted  the  Constitution,  and  she  made  the  ninth  State 
that  had  adopted  it.  That  great  event  wrought  at  once  an 
important  change  in  the  situation  of  the  United  States, 
inasmuch  as  the  Confederation  thereby  became  ipso  facto 
dissolved,  and  the  new  Constitution  had  become  the  lawful 
government  of  the  States  which  had  ratified  it. 

But  the  fact,  however  momentous,  did  not  seem  to  disturb 
the  tranquillity  or  shake  the  purpose  of  a  majority  of  the 
Convention.  Mr.  M.  Smith  and  Mr.  Lansing  both  declared 
that  the  event  had  no  influence  on  their  deliberations,  and 
the  Convention  continued  their  sharp  debate  for  three  weeks 
subsequent  to  that  information  and  apparently  regardless  of 
it,  and  until  all  hopes  of  an  auspicious  issue  to  it  seemed  to 
be  lost.  It  was  in  the  midst  of  that  gloomy  period,  and 
just  before  the  clouds  began  to  disperse  and  serene  skies 
to  appear,  that  Mr.  Hamilton  made  one  of  his  most  pathetic 
and  impassioned  addresses.  He  urged  every  motive  that  he 
thought  ought  to  govern  men,  and  he  touched  with  exquisite 
skill  every  chord  of  sympathy  that  could  be  made  to  vibrate 
in  the  human  breast.  Our  country,  our  honor,  our  friends, 
our  posterity  were  placed  in  vivid  colors  before  us.  He 
alluded  slightly  to  the  distress  and  degradation  which 
dictated  the  call  for  a  National  Convention,  and  he  portrayed 
in  matchless  style  the  characters  of  that  illustrious  assembly, 


3IO 


APPENDIX 


composed  undoubtedly  of  the  best  and  brightest  of  the 
American  statesmen,  who  could  have  had  no  motive  but 
their  country's  good.  They  had  lived  in  "  times  that  tried 
men's  souls."  To  discriminate  might  be  odious.  It  could 
not  be  so  to  select  Franklin,  revered  by  the  wise  men  of 
Europe,  and  Washington,  "  crowned  with  laurels,  loaded 
with  glory." 

Soon  thereafter  information  was  received  that  Virginia 
had  also  adopted  the  Constitution.  Colonel  Hamilton  read 
a  letter  to  the  Convention  to  that  effect  from  Mr.  Madison, 
and  then  a  visible  change  took  place  in  the  disposition  of 
the  House,  and  led  it  to  think  of  adopting  the  Constitution 
upon  certain  terms.  A  resolution  to  adopt  it  was  before 
the  House  when  Mr.  M.  Smith  moved  an  amendment  that 
it  be  ratified  upon  condition  that  certain  powers  contained 
in  the  instrument  should  not  be  exercised  until  a  general 
convention  of  the  States  had  been  called  to  propose 
amendments.  This  proposition  was  discussed  for  some 
days,  with  increasing  agitation  and  anxiety,  and  it  was  at 
last  urged  that  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  would 
readily  be  received  with  that  qualification  annexed.  Mr. 
Hamilton  was  strenuous  and  peremptory  in  his  opinion  and 
advice  to  the  House,  that  such  a  conditional  ratification  was 
void,  and  would  not  and  could  not  be  accepted  by  Congress. 
All  expectation  from  such  a  source  he  assured  them  would 
prove  delusive.  The  members  generally  and  gradually 
assumed  a  more  conciliatory  tone,  and  all  vehemence  in 
debate  seemed  to  have  ceased  as  by  common  consent. 
*'  We  did  not  come  here,"  said  Mr.  Jay,  "  to  carry  points  or 
gain  party  triumphs.  We  ought  not  to  wish  it.  We  were 
without  a  national  government  and  on  the  eve  of  an  untried 
era.  Everything  demanded  concession  and  moderation. 
The  laurels  of  party  victory  might  peradventure  be  bedewed 


APPENDIX  311 

with  the  tears  or  stained  with  the  blood  of  our  fellow- 
citizens." 

Colonel  Hamilton  disclaimed  the  intention  of  wounding 
the  feelings  of  any  individual,  though  he  admitted  that  he 
had  expressed  himself,  in  the  course  of  the  debates,  in 
strong  language  dictated  by  ardent  feelings  arising  out  of 
the  interesting  nature  of  the  discussions.  On  no  subject,  he 
observed,  had  his  breast  been  filled  with  stronger  emotions 
or  agitated  with  more  anxious  concern.  The  spirit  of  the 
House  was  liberal  and  cheering,  and  at  last  Samuel  Jones, 
one  of  the  Anti- Federal  members,  had  the  magnanimity  to 
move  to  substitute  the  words  "  in  full  confidence  "  in  lieu  of 
the  words  "  upon  condition."  He  was  supported  by  Me- 
lancthon  Smith,  who  had  so  eminently  distinguished  himself 
throughout  the  whole  course  of  the  session,  and  by  Zepha- 
niah  Piatt,  then  first  judge  of  the  County  of  Dutchess,  who 
made  a  few  observations  expressing  in  a  plain,  frank  manner, 
his  sense  of  duty  on  that  occasion  and  his  determination 
to  follow  it.  The  members  who  came  over  from  the  Anti- 
Federal  side  of  the  House  were  twelve  in  number,  being 
four  members  from  Dutchess,  four  from  Queens,  three  from 
Suffolk,  and  one  from  Washington,  and,  uniting  themselves 
with  the  nineteen  Federal  members  from  New  York,  West- 
chester, Kings,  and  Richmond,  they  constituted  a  majority 
in  the  Convention,  and  the  Constitution  was  ratified  on  the 
26th  of  July. 

I  always  considered  that  the  gentlemen  who  made  this 
memorable  and  unbought  sacrifice  of  prejudice,  error,  and 
pride  on  the  altar  of  patriotism  and  their  country's  welfare, 
were  entitled  to  the  highest  honor.  It  was  quite  an  heroic 
effort  to  quit  such  a  leader  as  Governor  Clinton,  and  such 
men  as  Yates  and  Lansing,  who  had  been  delegates  to  the 
General  Convention,  even  though  it  was  to  follow  their  own 


312  APPENDIX 

convictions.  It  was  understood  that  several  other  members 
were  inchned  to  follow  the  same  course,  but  they  could  not 
be  brought  to  desert  Governor  Clinton,  who  remained 
inflexible.  Had  he  consented  to  vote  for  the  Constitu- 
tion, the  final  ratification  of  it  would  probably  have  been 
unanimous.  As  it  was,  the  spirit  of  harmony  and  concilia- 
tion with  which  the  Convention  closed  was  deemed  most 
auspicious  by  all  sincere  lovers  of  their  country.  Considering 
the  circumstances  under  which  the  Convention  assembled, 
the  manner  in  which  it  terminated  afforded  a  new  and 
instructive  example  of  wisdom  and  moderation  to  mankind. 


III. 

The  third  and  last  part  of  the  history  of  General  Hamilton 
to  which  you  have  requested  my  attention  relates  to  his  life 
subsequent  to  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  After  the  Constitution  went  into  operation,  in  the 
course  of  the  year  1 789,  Mr.  Hamilton  was  appointed  to  the 
office  of  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  While  the  Constitution 
was  in  its  progress  to  maturity,  some  of  his  friends  had  sug- 
gested in  my  hearing  that  the  office  of  Chief-Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  would  be  in  every 
way  suited  to  the  exercise  of  his  discernment  and  judgment ; 
and  that  he  was  well  fitted  for  it  by  his  accurate  acquaint- 
ance with  the  general  principles  of  jurisprudence.  Of  all 
this  there  could  have  been  no  doubt.  But  his  versatile 
talents,  adapted  equally  for  the  Bench  or  the  Bar,  the  field, 
the  Senate  House,  and  the  executive  cabinet,  were  fortu- 
nately called  to  act  in  a  more  complicated,  busy,  and 
responsible  station,  I  found  myself  by  this  time  upon 
friendly  and  familiar  terms  with  Colonel  Hamilton.     In  the 


APPENDIX  313 

winter  and  spring  of  1789  he  took  a  leading  and  zealous 
part  in  the  election  of  Governor.  He  was  chairman  of  the 
New  York  Committee  of  Correspondence,  in  favor  of 
Judge  Yates  as  a  candidate  for  Governor,  in  opposition 
to  the  re-election  of  Governor  Clinton,  and  he  no  doubt 
was  the  author  of  some  of  the  circular  addresses  from  that 
committee.  One  of  them  was  subscribed  by  his  own  hand 
as  chairman,  and  was  circulated  in  a  pamphlet  form  ad- 
dressed to  the  Supervisors  of  each  county.  All  the  ad- 
dresses of  the  New  York  committees  on  each  side  were 
collected  by  me  at  the  time  and  are  now  before  me ;  and 
I  cannot  but  be  struck  with  the  spirit  of  decorum  which 
characterizes  their  contents,  in  the  midst  of  the  most 
earnest  and  the  most  animated  competition.  In  the 
printed  circulars  the  committees  fairly  reasoned  before 
the  public  the  merits  of  their  respective  pretensions  and 
candidates. 

I  was  in  New  York  when  the  House  of  Representatives 
was  first  organized  in  the  beginning  of  April,  1789,  and  no 
spectacle  could  have  been  more  gratifying.  The  City  Hall 
had  been  remodeled  and  fitted  up  in  elegant  style  for  the 
reception  of  Congress,  and  all  ranks  and  degrees  of  men 
seemed  to  be  actuated  by  one  common  impulse  to  fill  the 
galleries  as  soon  as  the  doors  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives were  opened  for  the  first  time,  and  to  gaze  on  one 
of  the  most  interesting  fruits  of  their  struggle,  a  popular 
assembly  summoned  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States. 
Colonel  Hamilton  remarked  to  me  that,  as  nothing  was 
to  be  done  the  first  day,  such  impatient  crowds  were  evi- 
dence of  the  powerful  principle  of  curiosity.  I  felt  another 
and  better  apology  in  my  own  breast.  I  considered 
it  to  be  a  proud  and  glorious  day,  the  consummation 
of   our  wishes;    and   that  I  was  looking  upon  an  organ 


314  APPENDIX 

of  popular  will,  just  beginning  to  breathe  the  breath  of 
life,  and  which  might  in  some  future  age,  much  more  truly 
than  the  Roman  Senate,  be  regarded  as  the  "  refuge  of 
nations."  At  any  rate  I  dwell  upon  that  recollection  with 
some  interest,  for  it  has  so  happened  that  I  have  never  since 
that  day  been  present  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 

Colonel  Hamilton  filled  the  office  of  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  upwards  of  five  years,  and  his  official  acts  are  all 
before  the  public,  and  do  not  come  within  the  scope  of 
my  present  inquiry.  He  resigned  the  office  in  January, 
1795,  after  having  raised  the  financial  character  of  the 
Government  to  an  exalted  height,  and  finished  those  duties 
which  appertained  peculiarly  to  that  department  on  its  first 
institution.  Those  duties  consisted  in  the  establishment 
of  a  sound,  efficient,  and  permanent  provision  for  the 
gradual  restoration  of  public  credit,  and  the  faithful  dis- 
charge of  the  national  debt.  No  man  ever  inculcated  with 
more  sincerity  and  zeal  a  lively  sense  of  the  obligations 
of  good  faith  and  the  sanctity  of  contracts.  In  his  view, 
the  true  principle  to  render  public  credit  immortal  was 
always  to  accompany  the  creation  of  debt  with  the  means 
of  extinguishing  it.  He  demonstrated  that  the  creation 
of  a  national  bank  was  within  the  reach  of  the  legitimate 
powers  of  the  Government,  and  essential  to  the  convenient 
and  prosperous  administration  of  the  national  finances. 
He  made  an  able  and  elaborate  report  in  favor  of  the 
encouragement  of  domestic  manufactures,  and  he  seems 
not  to  have  entertained  a  doubt  of  the  constitutional  right 
of  Congress  to  exercise  its  discretion  on  the  subject. 

He  contended  that  the  encouragement  of  manufactures 
tended  to  create  a  more  extensive,  certain,  and  permanent 
home  market  for  the  surplus  produce  of  land,  and  that 
it  was  necessary,  in  self-defence,  to  meet  and  counteract 


APPENDIX 


315 


the  restrictive  system  of  the  commercial  nations  of  Europe. 
It  was  admitted,  however,  that  if  the  hberal  system  of 
Adam  Smith  had  been  generally  adopted,  it  would  have 
carried  forward  nations,  with  accelerated  motion,  in  the 
career  of  prosperity  and  greatness.  The  Enghsh  critics 
spoke  at  the  time  of  his  report  as  a  strong  and  able  plea 
on  the  side  of  manufactures,  and  said  that  the  subjects  of 
trade,  finance,  and  internal  policy  were  not  often  discussed 
with  so  much  precision  of  thought  and  perspicuity  of 
language. 

During  the  time  that  Colonel  Hamilton  presided  over 
the  Treasury  Department,  the  French  Revolution  was  in 
action,  and  a  fierce  war  broke  out  between  Great  Britain 
and  the  French  Republic.  He  was  one  of  President 
Washington's  cabinet  council,  and  a  leading  and  efficient 
adviser  of  the  President's  proclamation  of  neutrality  in  April, 
1793,  declaring  the  neutral  position  of  the  United  States, 
and  his  duty  and  determination,  as  the  chief  executive  guar- 
dian of  the  laws,  to  preserve  it.  That  proclamation  was  the 
index  to  the  foreign  policy  of  President  Washington,  and 
it  was  temperately  and  discreetly,  but  firmly  maintained, 
under  the  sage  advice  and  controlling  influence  of  Hamilton, 
against  the  arts  and  intrigues  of  the  French  Minister  to  the 
United  States,  and  against  all  the  force  and  fury  of  the  tem- 
pestuous passions  of  the  times,  engendered  and  influenced 
by  the  French  democracy.  He  aided  the  great  American 
policy  of  neutrality  by  his  pen,  in  some  fugitive  pieces 
under  the  signature  of  No  Jacobin,  and  in  the  more  elabo- 
rate and  elegant  essays  under  the  signature  of  Pacificus ; 
and  still  more  so  by  his  opinion  and  advice  in  favor  of  the 
seasonable  mission  of  Chief-Justice  Jay  to  the  Court  of 
Great  Britain,  in  the  spring  of  1794.  That  envoy  was 
sent  on  purpose  "  to  vindicate  our  rights  with  firmness  and 


31 6  APPENDIX 

to  cultivate  peace  with  sincerity,"  and  no  one  event  was 
attended  with  more  auspicious  results,  or  contributed 
equally  to  establish  and  elevate  the  pacific  policy  of 
Washington,  who,  having  "  once  saved  his  country  by  his 
valor  in  war,  again  saved  it  by  his  wisdom  in  peace." 

Mr.  Hamilton  returned  to  private  life  and  to  the 
practice  of  the  law  in  New  York  in  the  spring  of  1795. 
He  was  cordially  welcomed  and  cheered  on  his  return  by 
his  fellow-citizens,  and  while  he  was  gradually  resuming 
his  profession  he  felt  himself  called  upon,  by  a  sense  of 
duty,  to  vindicate  by  his  pen  one  great  act  of  Washing- 
ton's administration.  Mr.  Jay's  treaty  with  Great  Britain 
had  been  negotiated  while  he  was  in  office,  though  it 
was  not  ratified  by  the  President  and  Senate  until  the 
summer  of  1795.  ^^  ^^^  honorably  adjusted  and  ex- 
tinguished the  complaints  and  difficulties  between  us  and 
Great  Britain,  and  it  contributed  essentially  to  continue 
and  strengthen  the  neutrality  of  the  United  States.  But 
it  was  vehemently  opposed  and  denounced  by  the  party 
in  this  country  which  had  originally  opposed  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  which,  from  being  fon-qerly  denominated  the 
Anti- Federal,  was  then  called  the  Democratic  party;  and 
it  included,  of  course,  all  the  devoted  partisans  of  France 
and  apologists  for  the  violence  and  madness  of  the  French 
rulers. 

Mr.  Hamilton  vindicated  the  treaty  in  a  series  of  essays 
under  the  signature  of  Camillus.  They  were  written  with 
vast  ability,  and  in  clear,  strong,  and  elegant  language,  and 
disclosed  a  familiar  acquaintance  with  all  the  grievances, 
claims,  doctrines,  and  principles  adjusted,  ascertained,  and 
declared  by  the  treaty.  Some  of  the  essays  are  of  perma- 
nent value,  and  will  be  read  and  cited  as  long  as  his  name 
endures,  as  accurate  and  lucid  commentaries  on  public  law. 


APPENDIX  317 

My  acquaintance  with  Colonel  Hamilton  was  revived 
after  his  return  to  New  York,  and  it  was  enlarged  and 
cherished,  and  eventually  terminated  in  a  warm  and  con- 
fidential friendship.  Several  of  the  essays  of  Camillus  were 
communicated  to  me  before  they  were  printed,  and  my 
attention  was  attracted,  by  a  single  fact  which  fell  under 
my  own  eye,  to  the  habit  of  thorough,  precise,  and  authen- 
tic research  which  accompanied  all  his  investigations.  He 
was  not  content,  for  instance,  with  examining  Grotius,  and 
taking  him  as  an  authority,  in  any  other  than  the  original 
Latin  language  in  which  the  work  was  composed. 

Between  the  years  1795  ^'^^  ^79^  ^^  took  his  station  as 
the  leading  counsel  at  the  Bar.  He  was  employed  in  every 
important  and  especially  in  every  commercial  case.  He 
was  a  very  great  favorite  with  the  merchants  of  New  York, 
and  he  most  justly  deserved  to  be,  for  he  had  uniformly 
shown  himself  to  be  one  of  the  most  enlightened,  intrepid, 
and  persevering  friends  to  the  commercial  prosperity  of 
this  country.  Insurance  questions,  both  upon  the  law  and 
the  fact,  constituted  a  large  portion  of  the  litigated  busi- 
ness in  the  courts,  and  much  of  the  intense  study  and  dis- 
cussion at  the  Bar.  The  business  of  insurance  was  carried 
on  principally  by  private  underwriters,  and  as  the  law  had 
not  been  defined  and  settled  in  this  country  by  a  course  of 
judicial  decisions,  and  was  open  to  numerous  perplexed 
questions  arising  out  of  our  neutral  trade,  and  was  left, 
under  a  complicated  mixture  of  law  and  fact,  very  much 
at  large  to  a  jury,  the  litigation  of  that  kind  was  immense. 
Mr.  Hamilton  had  an  overwhelming  share  of  it,  and  though 
the  New  York  Bar  could  at  that  time  boast  of  the  clear  in- 
tellect, the  candor,  the  simplicity,  and  black-letter  learning 
of  the  elder  Jones,  the  profound  and  richly  varied  learning 
of  Harrison,  the  classical   taste  and  elegant  accomplish- 


3i8  APPENDIX 

ments  of  Brockholst  Livingston,  the  solid  and  accurate, 
but  unpretending  common-law  learning  of  Troup,  the  chiv- 
alrous feelings  and  dignified  address  of  Pendleton,  yet  the 
mighty  mind  of  Hamilton  would  at  times  bear  down  all 
opposition  by  its  comprehensive  grasp  and  the  strength  of 
his  reasoning  powers. 

He  taught  us  all  how  to  probe  deeply  into  the  hidden 
recesses  of  the  science,  or  to  follow  up  principles  to  their 
far  distant  sources.  He  was  not  content  with  the  modem 
reports,  abridgments,  or  translations.  He  ransacked  cases 
and  precedents  to  their  very  foundations ;  and  we  learned 
from  him  to  carry  our  inquiries  into  the  commercial  codes 
of  the  nations  of  the  European  continent,  and  in  a  special 
manner  to  illustrate  the  law  of  insurance  by  the  severe 
judgment  of  Emerigon  and  the  luminous  commentaries  of 
Valin. 

In  the  spring  of  1798  Mr.  Hamilton  felt  himself  called 
upon  by  a  sense  of  public  duty  to  engage  once  more  in 
political  discussion.  It  will  be  recollected,  as  I  once  had 
occasion  to  observe  in  a  brief  review  of  his  public  life  and 
writings  which  was  published  anonymously  soon  after  his 
death,  that  France  had  long  been  making  piratical  depre- 
dations upon  our  commerce ;  that  negotiation  and  a  pacific 
adjustment  had  been  repeatedly  attempted  on  the  part  of 
this  country  without  success ;  that  one  Minister  had  been 
refused  an  audience ;  that  three  Ministers  Extraordinary 
had  been  treated  with  the  grossest  indignity,  and  money 
demanded  of  the  United  States  on  terms  the  most  degrad- 
ing. The  doors  of  reconciliation  being  thus  barred,  we 
had  no  honorable  alternative  left  but  open  and  determined 
resistance.  At  that  portentous  period  Mr.  Hamilton  pub- 
lished The  Stand,  or  a  series  under  the  signature  of  Titus 
Manlius,  with  a  view  to  arouse  the  people  of  this  country 


. ,     APPENDIX  319 

to  a  sense  of  their  impending  danger,  and  to  measures  of 
defence  which  should  be  at  once  vigorous  and  manly. 

The  plan  of  this  production  was  communicated  to  me  by 
Mr.  Hamilton  before  it  appeared,  and  the  very  signature 
was  a  subject  of  discussion  at  my  office.  He  wished  for 
some  appropriate  name  from  Roman  history,  applicable 
to  the  stand  which  those  ancient  Republicans  had  made 
against  the  Gauls,  and  on  examination  the  name  selected 
was  deemed  by  him  the  most  suitable.  In  these  essays  he 
portrayed  in  strong  and  glowing  colors  the  conduct  of 
revolutionarj'  France  towards  her  own  people  and  towards 
other  nations.  He  showed  that  she  had  undermined  the 
main  pillars  of  civilized  society ;  that  she  had  betrayed  a 
plan  to  disorganize  the  human  mind  itself  by  attempting 
to  destroy  all  religious  opinion  and  pervert  a  whole  people 
to  atheism ;  that  her  ruling  passions  were  ambition  and 
fanaticism  ;  and  that  she  aimed  equally  to  proselyte,  subju- 
gate, and  debase  every  government,  without  distinction,  to 
effect  the  aggrandizement  of  the  "  great  nation,"  All  the 
States,  even  of  the  republican  form,  that  fell  within  her 
wide-spread  grasp  —  the  United  Netherlands,  Geneva,  the 
Swiss  Cantons,  Genoa,  and  Venice  —  had  already  been  pros- 
trated by  her  arms,  or  her  still  more  formidable  caresses. 

He  then  gave  a  detail  of  the  accumulated  insults  and 
injuries  which  the  United  States  had  received  from  France, 
and  showed  that  her  object  was  to  degrade  and  humble  our 
Government,  and  prepare  the  way  for  revolution  and  con- 
quest. He  concluded,  as  the  result  of  his  work,  that  we 
ought  to  suspend  our  treaties  with  France,  fortify  our  har- 
bors, defend  our  commerce  on  the  ocean,  attack  their 
predatory  cruisers  on  our  coasts,  create  a  respectable  naval 
force,  and  raise,  or  organize  and  discipline,  a  considerable 
army,  as  an  indispensable  precaution  against  attempts  at 


320  APPENDIX 

invasion,  which  might  put  in  jeopardy  our  very  existence 
as  a  nation.  So  undeniable  were  all  these  facts,  so  irresist- 
ible were  the  conclusions  which  he  drew  from  them,  that 
in  the  summer  of  1798  those  measures  suggested  by  Mr. 
Hamilton  were  all  literally  carried  into  execution  by  Con- 
gress, and  received  the  warm  and  hearty  sanction  of  the 
nation.  An  honorable,  proud,  and  manly  sentiment  was 
then  enkindled  and  pervaded  the  continent ;  it  reflected 
high  honor  on  our  national  character,  and  that  character 
was  transmitted  to  Europe  as  a  means  of  respect  and  a 
pledge  of  security. 

It  is  well  known  that  General  Washington  gave  his  decided 
approbation  to  all  those  measures  of  national  resistance,  and 
that  he  urged  upon  Government  the  employment  of  Colonel 
Hamilton  in  the  military  line.  In  a  letter  to  President 
Adams,  in  September,  1798,  he  pronounced  upon  him  a 
noble  eulogy.  He  declared  that  Colonel  Hamilton  had  been 
his  "  principal  and  most  confidential  aid  ;  that  his  acknowl- 
edged abilities  and  integrity  had  placed  him  on  high  ground 
and  made  him  a  conspicuous  character  in  the  United  States, 
and  even  in  Europe ;  that  he  had  the  laudable  ambition 
which  prompts  a  man  to  excel  in  whatever  he  takes  in  hand  ; 
that  he  was  enterprising,  quick  in  his  perceptions,  and  that 
his  judgment  was  intuitively  great."  Upon  the  earnest  rec- 
ommendation of  Washington,  General  Hamilton  was  ap- 
pointed Inspector-General  of  the  provisional  army  that  was 
raised  in  1 798  ;  but  the  time  which  he  was  necessarily  led  to 
bestow  on  his  new  military  duties  did  not  dissolve  his  con- 
nection with  the  profession  and  practice  of  the  law.  That 
military  office  was  but  temporary,  and  he  soon  resumed  his 
full  practice  at  the  bar. 

My  judicial  station,  in  1798,  brought  him  before  me  in  a 
new  relation,  but  the  familiar  friendly  intercourse  between  us 


APPENDIX  321 

was  not  diminished,  and  it  kept  on  increasing  to  the  end  of 
his  life.  At  circuits  and  in  term  time  I  was  called,  in  a 
thousand  instances,  to  attend  with  intense  interest  and  high 
admiration  to  the  rapid  exercise  of  his  reasoning  powers,  the 
sagacity  with  which  he  pursued  his  investigations,  his  pierc- 
ing criticisms,  his  masterly  analysis,  and  the  energy  and 
fer\^or  of  his  appeals  to  the  judgment  and  conscience  of  the 
tribunal  which  he  addressed.  If  I  were  to  select  any  two 
cases  in  which  his  varied  powers  were  most  strikingly  dis- 
played, it  would  be  the  case  of  Le  Guen  v.  Gouverneur 
and  Kevible,  argued  before  the  Court  of  Errors  in  the  winter 
of  1 800,  and  the  case  of  Cros7vell  ads.  The  People,  argued 
before  the  Supreme  Court  in  February  term,  1804.  In 
the  first  of  those  cases  the  most  distinguished  counsel  of  the 
New  York  Bar  were  engaged ;  but  what  gave  peculiar  in- 
terest to  it  was  the  circumstance  that  Gouverneur  IMorris,  a 
relative  of  one  of  the  defendants,  gratuitously  appeared  as 
their  counsel.  The  action  had  been  originally  commenced 
by  Le  Guen  at  law,  upon  the  advice  of  l\Ir.  Hamilton.  The 
claim  was  very  large  in  amount,  and  after  expensive  trials 
and  the  most  persevering  and  irritating  litigation,  pursued 
into  the  court  of  the  last  resort.  The  plaintiff  recovered 
upon  technical  rules  of  law  strictly  and  severely  applied. 

The  claim  was  a  commercial  one,  and  was  in  opposition  to 
the  mercantile  sense  of  its  justice.  The  success  of  it  was 
thought  at  the  time  to  be  due  in  a  very  material  degree  to 
the  overbearing  weight  and  influence  of  General  Hamilton's 
talents.  The  case  I  now  allude  to,  in  which  Mr.  Hamilton 
and  Mr.  Morris  were  brought  into  collision,  was  on  an 
appeal  from  a  decree  in  Chancery,  in  which  relief  on  grounds 
of  fraud  had  been  afforded  against  the  judgment  at  law. 
The  zeal  and  anxiety  which  the  cause  enkindled  had  been 
increasing  through  the  whole  protracted  controversy,  and 


322 


APPENDIX 


had  become  very  intense  at  the  period  of  this  final  review. 
Ever)'thing  was  calculated  to  tax  to  the  utmost  the  powers 
of  those  two  illustrious  statesmen  civilians.  If  the  one  was 
superior  in  logic  and  law  learning,  the  other  was  presumed 
to  be  his  equal  in  eloquence,  imagination,  and  wit.  The  ap- 
pearance of  Mr.  Morris  was  very  commanding.  His  noble 
head,  his  majestic  mien,  the  dignity  of  his  deportment  were 
all  impressive.  I  have  no  notes  or  memorials  remaining  of 
the  argument  in  the  cause,  but  my  memory  serves  me  to  say 
that  it  was  a  most  beautiful  and  captivating  display  of  the 
genius  and  varied  accomplishments  of  those  orators. 

The  questions  of  law  involved  in  the  case  were  indeed  dry 
and  technical,  nor  were  the  facts  of  a  nature  to  excite  much 
interest.  It  was  the  large  amount  of  property  in  controversy, 
the  character  of  the  litigation,  and,  above  all,  the  high  repu- 
tation of  the  two  leading  counsel,  that  roused  such  ardent 
curiosity  and  anxious  expectation.  But  any  cause  involving 
law  and  fact  seems  to  be  sufficient  to  afford  aliment  for  the 
brilliant  exhibition  of  minds  of  such  high  order  and  of  such 
intellectual  resources.  There  was,  in  that  case,  a  mass  of 
facts  involving  a  complicated  charge  of  fraud,  and  that 
was  enough  to  command  the  exertion  of  the  keenest  sa- 
gacity, a  critical  severity,  shrewd  retort,  and  pathetic  ap- 
peal. A  Jewish  house  was  concerned  in  the  commercial 
transaction,  and  that  led  to  affecting  allusion  to  the  char- 
acter and  fortunes  of  that  ancient  race.  Some  of  the 
negotiations  happened  in  France,  and  that  produced  refer- 
ences to  that  tremendous  Revolution  which  was  then  still 
in  its  fury,  and  whose  frightful  ravages  and  remorseless  pre- 
tensions seemed  to  overawe  and  confound  the  nations. 

Mr.  Morris  and  Mr.  Hamilton  equally  resorted  for  illus- 
tration to  Shakespeare,  Milton,  and  Pope  ;  and  when  the 
former  complained  that  his  long  absence  from  the  bar  had 


APPENDIX  323 

caused  him  to  forget  the  decisions,  the  latter  sportively 
accounted  for  it  on  another  principle,  and  relied  on  the 
poetical  authority  that  — 

"  Where  beams  of  warm  imagination  play, 
The  memory's  soft  figures  melt  away." 

The  other  case  I  mentioned  involved  the  discussion  of 
legal  principles  of  the  greatest  consequence.  Croswell 
had  been  indicted  and  convicted  of  a  libel  upon  Thomas 
Jefferson,  then  President  of  the  United  States.  The  libel 
consisted  in  charging  Mr.  Jefferson  with  having  paid  one 
Callander,  a  printer,  for  grossly  slandering  George  Wash- 
ington and  John  Adams,  the  former  Presidents;  and  the 
defendant  offered  to  prove  the  truth  of  the  charge.  But 
the  testimony  was  overruled  by  Chief- Justice  Lewis,  who 
held  the  circuit,  and  he  charged  the  jury  that  it  was  not 
their  province  to  decide  on  the  intent  of  the  defendant, 
or  whether  the  libel  was  true  or  false  or  malicious,  and  that 
those  questions  belonged  exclusively  to  the  court.  The 
motion  was  for  a  new  trial  for  misdirection  of  the  Judge, 
and  those  two  great  points  in  the  case  were  elaborately 
discussed  before  the  Supreme  Court,  and  they  were  con- 
sidered by  General  Hamilton,  who  appeared  gratuitously 
for  the  defendant,  as  affecting  very  essentially  the  consti- 
tutional right  of  trial  by  jury  in  criminal  cases,  and  the 
American  doctrine  of  the  liberty  of  the  press. 

I  have  always  considered  General  Hamilton's  argu- 
ment in  that  cause  the  greatest  forensic  effort  that  he  ever 
made.  He  had  bestowed  unusual  attention  to  the  case, 
and  he  came  prepared  to  discuss  the  points  of  law  with 
a  perfect  mastery  of  the  subject.  He  believed  that  the 
rights  and  liberties  of  the  people  were  essentially  concerned 
in  the  vindication  and  establishment  of  those  rights  of  the 


324  APPENDIX 

jury  and  of  the  press  for  which  he  contended.  That  con- 
sideration was  sufficient  to  arouse  all  the  faculties  of  his 
mind  to  their  utmost  energy.  He  held  it  to  be  an  essen- 
tial ingredient  in  the  trial  by  jury  that,  in  criminal  cases, 
the  law  and  the  fact  were  necessarily  blended  by  the  plea 
of  not  guilty,  and  that  the  jury  had  a  rightful  cognizance 
of  the  intent  and  tendency  of  the  libel,  for  in  the  intent 
consisted  the  crime.  They  had  a  right  and  they  were 
bound  in  duty  to  take  into  consideration  the  whole  matter 
of  the  charge,  both  as  to  the  law  and  the  fact,  for  it  was 
all  involved  in  the  issue  and  determined  by  a  general  ver- 
dict. On  the  independent  exercise  of  the  right  of  the 
jury  in  criminal  cases  to  determine  the  guilt  or  innocence 
of  the  defendant,  according  to  their  judgment  and  con- 
sciences, rested  the  security  of  our  lives  and  liberties. 
Nothing  would  be  more  dangerous  to  the  citizens  of  this 
country  than  to  place  the  trial  by  jury  in  such  cases 
under  the  control  and  dictation  of  the  court.  The  Eng- 
lish history,  in  its  dark  and  disastrous  periods,  showed 
abundantly  by  its  records  that  the  most  dangerous,  the 
most  sure,  the  most  fatal  of  tyrannies  consisted  in  select- 
ing and  sacrificing  single  individuals,  under  the  mask  and 
forms  of  law,  by  dependent  and  partial  tribunals.  We 
could  not  too  perseveringly  cultivate  and  sustain  the  rights 
of  the  jury  in  all  their  common-law  vigor,  as  the  great 
guardians  of  liberty  and  life,  equally  against  the  sport  and 
fury  of  contending  factions,  the  vindictive  persecution  of 
the  public  prosecutor,  and  the  "  machinations  of  dema- 
gogues and  tyrants  on  their  imagined  thrones." 

On  the  other  great  question  in  the  case  he  contended 
with  equal  ardor  and  ability  for  the  admission  of  the  truth 
in  evidence  to  a  qualified  extent  in  justification  of  the 
libel.     He  showed  that  it   depended  on    the    motive  and 


APPENDIX  325 

object  of  the  publication  whether  the  truth  was  or  was 
not  a  justification. 

The  Uberty  of  the  press  was  held  to  consist  in  the  right 
to  publish  with  impunity  the  truth,  whether  it  respected 
government,  magistrates,  or  individuals,  provided  it  was 
published  with  good  motives  and  for  justifiable  ends.  The 
hard  doctrines  under  which  his  client  was  convicted  came 
from  the  Star  Chamber,  that  arbitrary  and  hated  tribunal 
acting  under  the  government  of  a  permanent  body  of 
judges,  without  the  wholesome  restraints  of  a  jury.  He 
felt  a  proud  satisfaction  in  the  reflection  that  the  Act  of 
Congress  of  July,  1798,  for  preventing  certain  libels  against 
the  Government,  and  which  Act  had  been  grossly  mis- 
represented, established  these  two  great  principles  of  civil 
liberty  involved  in  the  discussion.  It  declared  that  the 
jury  should  have  the  right  to  determine  the  law  and  the 
fact,  under  the  direction  of  the  court,  as  in  other  cases, 
and  that  the  defendant  might  give  in  evidence  in  his 
defence  the  truth  of  the  libel.  He  was  as  strenuous  for 
the  qualification  of  the  rule  allowing  the  truth  of  the  libel 
to  be  shown  in  the  defence,  as  he  was  for  the  rule  itself. 

While  he  regarded  the  liberty  of  the  press  as  essential  to 
the  preservation  of  free  government,  he  considered  that  a 
press  wholly  unchecked,  with  a  right  to  publish  anything  at 
pleasure,  regardless  of  truth  or  decency,  would  be,  in  the 
hands  of  unprincipled  men,  a  terrible  engine  of  mischief,  and 
would  be  liable  to  be  diverted  to  the  most  seditious  and 
wicked  purposes,  and  for  the  gratification  of  private  malice 
or  revenge.  Such  a  free  press  would  destroy  public  and 
private  confidence,  and  would  overawe  and  corrupt  the 
impartial  administration  of  justice. 

There  was  an  unusual  solemnity  and  earnestness  on  the 
part  of  General  Hamilton  in  this  discussion.     He  was  at 


326  APPENDIX 

times  highly  impassioned  and  pathetic.  His  whole  soul  was 
enlisted  in  the  cause,  and  in  contending  for  the  rights  of 
the  jury  and  a  free  press  he  considered  that  he  was  estab- 
lishing the  finest  refuge  against  oppression.  The  aspect  of 
the  times  was  portentous,  and  he  was  persuaded  that  if  he 
should  be  able  to  overthrow  the  high-toned  doctrine  con- 
tained in  the  charge  of  the  judge,  it  would  be  great  gain  to 
the  liberties  of  his  country.  He  entered,  by  the  force  of 
sympathy,  into  the  glorious  struggles  of  English  patriots, 
during  oppressive  and  unconstitutional  times,  for  the  rights 
of  juries  and  for  a  free  press ;  and  the  anxiety  and  tender- 
ness of  his  feelings  and  the  gravity  of  his  theme  rendered  his 
reflections  exceedingly  impressive.  He  never  before,  in  my 
hearing,  made  any  effort  in  which  he  commanded  higher 
reverence  for  his  principles,  or  equal  admiration  of  his 
eloquence. 

Nor  were  his  efforts  on  that  occasion  lost  to  his  country. 
The  fruit  of  them  still  exists  and  will  remain  with  posterity, 
a  monument  of  his  glory,  though  the  court  was  equally 
divided  on  the  motion  he  discussed,  and  therefore  decided 
nothing ;  yet  in  the  following  winter  the  Legislature  of  New 
York  passed  a  declaratory  statute,  introduced  into  the  House 
of  Assembly  by  William  W,  Van  Ness,  his  friend  and  asso- 
ciate on  the  trial,  admitting  the  right  of  the  jury  in  all 
criminal  cases  to  determine  the  law  and  the  fact  under  the 
direction  of  the  court,  and  allowing  the  truth  to  be  given  in 
evidence  by  the  defendant,  in  every  prosecution  for  a  libel ; 
provided  that  such  evidence  should  not  be  a  justification, 
unless  it  should  be  made  satisfactorily  to  appear  that  the 
matter  charged  as  libel  was  published  with  good  motives 
and  for  justifiable  ends. 

In  April,  1804,  I  held  the  Circuit  Court  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  and  the  most  interesting  interview  which  I  ever 


APPENDIX 


327 


had  with  General  Hamilton  was  at  his  country  seat  at 
Harlem  Heights,  during  the  course  of  that  month.  He 
took  me  out  to  dine  with  him  and  I  was  detained  at  his 
house  the  next  day.^  We  were  assailed  by  a  violent  easterly 
storm  the  night  I  was  there,  and  the  house,  standing  on 
high  ground,  was  very  much  exposed  to  the  fury  of  the 
winds  as  they  swept  over  the  island  from  the  "  vex'd 
Atlantic."  The  solicitude  of  General  Hamilton  for  my 
comfort,  and  his  attention  and  kindness  quite  affected  me. 
He  visited  me  after  I  had  retired  to  my  chamber,  to  see 
that  I  was  sufficiently  attended  to.  In  a  memorandum 
which  I  made  a  day  or  two  after  that  visit,  and  which  is 
now  before  me,  I  state  in  allusion  to  it  that  "  he  never 
appeared  before  so  friendly  and  amiable.  I  was  alone,  and 
he  treated  me  with  a  minute  affection  that  I  did  not  suppose 
he  knew  how  to  bestow.  His  manners  were  delicate  and 
chaste,  and  he  appeared,  in  his  domestic  state,  the  plain, 
modest,  and  affectionate  father  and  husband." 

Gouverneur  Morris  was  to  have  dined  with  us,  but  he 
sent  an  apology  stating  that  "  the  Jacobin  winds "  had 
prevented  him.  We  were  consequently  left  to  ourselves 
during  the  greater  part  of  a  day,  and  the  conversation  led 
to  a  more  serious  train  of  reflections  on  his  part  than  I  had 
ever  before  known  him  to  indulge.  His  mind  had  a  cast 
usually  melancholy.  The  impending  election  exceedingly 
disturbed  him,  and  he  viewed  the  temper,  disposition,  and 
passions  of  the  times  as  portentous  of  evil,  and  favorable 
to  the  sway  of  artful  and  ambitious  demagogues.  His  wise 
reflections,  his  sober  views,  his  anxiety,  his  gentleness,  his 
goodness,  his  Christian  temper,  all  contributed  to  render 
my  solitary  visit  inexpressibly  interesting.  At  that  time  he 
revealed  to  me  a  plan  he  had  in  contemplation,  for  a  full 

1  Supra,  p.  143. 


328  APPENDIX 

investigation  of  the  history  and  science  of  civil  government, 
and  the  practical  results  of  the  various  modifications  of  it 
upon  the  freedom  and  happiness  of  mankind.  He  wished 
to  have  the  subject  treated  in  reference  to  past  experience, 
and  upon  the  principles  of  Lord  Bacon's  inductive  philoso- 
phy. His  object  was  to  see  what  safe  and  salutary  conclu- 
sions might  be  drawn  from  an  historical  examination  of  the 
effects  of  the  various  institutions  heretofore  existing,  upon 
the  freedom,  the  morals,  the  prosperity,  the  intelligence,  the 
jurisprudence,  and  the  happiness  of  the  people.  Six  or  eight 
gentlemen  were  to  be  united  with  him  in  the  work,  according 
to  his  arrangement,  and  each  of  them  was  to  take  his  ap- 
propriate part  and  to  produce  a  volume.  If  I  am  not  mis- 
taken Mr.  Harrison,  Mr.  Jay,  Mr.  Morris,  and  Mr.  King  were 
suggested  by  him  as  desirable  coadjutors.  I  recollect  that 
he  proposed  to  assign  the  subject  of  ecclesiastical  history  to 
the  Rev'd  Dr.  Mason,  and  he  was  pleased  to  suggest  that  he 
wished  me  to  accept  a  share  of  the  duty.  The  conclusions 
to  be  drawn  from  these  historical  reviews,  he  intended  to 
reserve  for  his  own  task,  and  this  is  the  imperfect  outline  of 
the  scheme  which  then  occupied  his  thoughts.  I  heard  no 
more  of  it  afterwards,  for  the  business  of  the  court  occupied 
all  our  attention,  and  after  the  May  term  of  that  year  I 
saw  him  no  more. 

I  have  very  little  doubt  that  if  General  Hamilton  had 
lived  twenty  years  longer,  he  would  have  rivalled  Socrates, 
or  Bacon,  or  any  other  of  the  sages  of  ancient  or  modern 
times,  in  researches  after  truth  and  in  benevolence  to  man- 
kind. The  active  and  profound  statesman,  the  learned 
and  eloquent  lawyer  would  probably  have  disappeared  in 
a  great  degree  before  the  character  of  the  sage  philosopher, 
instructing  mankind  by  his  wisdom  and  elevating  his 
country  by  his  example.     He    had  not  then  attained   his 


APPENDIX  329 

forty-eighth  year,  and  all  his  faculties  were  in  their  full 
vigor  and  maturity,  and  incessantly  busy  in  schemes  to 
avert  distant  dangers  and  to  secure  the  freedom  and 
promote  the  honor  and  happiness  of  his  country. 

I  knew  General  Hamilton's  character  well.  His  life 
and  actions,  for  the  course  of  twenty-two  years,  had  engaged 
and  fixed  my  attention.  They  were  often  passing  under 
my  eye  and  observation.  For  the  last  six  years  of  his  life 
he  was  arguing  causes  before  me.  I  have  been  sensibly 
struck,  in  a  thousand  instances,  with  his  habitual  reverence 
for  truth,  his  candor,  his  ardent  attachment  to  civil 
liberty,  his  indignation  at  oppression  of  every  kind,  his 
abhorrence  of  every  semblance  of  fraud,  his  reverence  for 
justice,  and  his  sound  legal  principles  drawn  by  a  clear  and 
logical  deduction  from  the  purest  Christian  ethics,  and 
from  the  very  foundations  of  all  rational  and  practical  juris- 
prudence. He  was  blessed  with  a  very  amiable,  generous, 
tender,  and  charitable  disposition,  and  he  had  the  most 
artless  simplicity  of  any  man  I  ever  knew.  It  was  impossi- 
ble not  to  love  as  well  as  respect  and  admire  him.  He 
was  perfectly  disinterested.  The  selfish  principle,  that 
infirmity  too  often  of  great  as  well  as  of  little  minds, 
seemed  never  to  have  reached  him.  It  was  entirely  in- 
compatible with  the  purity  of  his  taste  and  the  grandeur 
of  his  ambition.  Everything  appeared  to  be  at  once  ex- 
tinguished, when  it  came  in  competition  with  his  devo- 
tion to  his  country's  welfare  and  glory.  He  was  a  most 
faithful  friend  to  the  cause  of  civil  liberty  throughout  the 
world,  but  he  was  a  still  greater  friend  to  truth  and 
justice. 

]_He  wished  the  people  to  enjoy  as  much  political  liberty 
as  they  were  competent  to  use  and  not  abuse,  —  as  much 
as  was  consistent  with  the  perfect  security  of  life  and  social 


330  APPENDIX 

rights,  and  the  acquisition  and  enjoyment  of  property.  He 
was  satisfied,  from  profound  reflection  and  from  the  uniform 
language  of  history,  that  all  plans  of  government  founded 
on  any  new  and  extraordinary  reform  in  the  morals  of 
mankind  were  plainly  Utopian.  The  voice  of  history,  the 
language  of  Scripture,  the  study  of  the  nature  and  character 
of  man,  all  taught  us  that  mankind  were  exceedingly  prone 
to  error ;  that  they  were  liable  to  be  duped  by  flattery,  to 
be  seduced  by  artful,  designing  men,  to  be  inflamed  by 
jealousies  and  bad  passions ;  and  he  was  satisfied  that  the 
greatest  danger  to  be  apprehended  in  this  country  was 
from  the  natural  tendency  of  the  organized  and  powerful 
State  governments  to  resist  and  control  the  constitutional 
authority  of  the  federal  head.  This  I  know  from  repeated 
conversations  with  him  to  have  been  one  great  ground  of 
uneasiness  and  apprehension  with  him  as  to  our  future 
destiny.  He  knew  that  factions  were  the  besetting  evils 
of  republics.  They  lead  to  the  tyrannical  oppression  of 
minorities,  of  individuals  under  the  mask  and  form  of  law ; 
to  the  dangerous  influence  of  cunning,  intriguing,  and 
corrupt  leaders ;  to  civil  discord  and  anarchy,  and  eventu- 
ally to  an  armed  master.  The  fate  of  all  former  federative 
governments  and  the  horrible  excesses  of  the  French 
democracy  were  before  his  eyes,  and  without  the  aid  of  his 
private  reflections  we  can  be  at  no  loss,  from  the  reason- 
ings and  sentiments  in  The  Federalist,  to  know  the  quarter 
from  which  he  apprehended  danger  and  dissension,  dis- 
union and  ruin  to  the  nation.  ~\ 

I  have  thus  endeavored,  my  dear  madam,  to  the  best 
of  my  ability,  and  with  perfect  candor  and  regard  for  truth, 
to  satisfy  your  inquiries.  And  if  what  I  have  written  shall 
afford  you  consolation,  and  shall  contribute  in  any  small 
degree  to  awaken  in  the  present  generation  an  increased 


APPENDIX  331 

attention  to  the   history  and  character  of  your  illustrious 
husband,  I  shall  be  amply  rewarded  for  my  effort. 
I  am,  Madam,  with  the  utmost  respect  and  esteem, 
Your  friend  and  ob'd't  serv't, 

James  Kent. 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  Hamilton. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Adams,  Charles,  64. 

Adams,  John,  letters  to  his  son 
Charles,  concerning  Kent's  law 
lectures,  64 ;  elected  President 
in  defeat  of  Jefferson,  87  ;  criti- 
cised by  Kent,  88-9S. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  250,  251. 

Albany,  social  life  at,  119. 

Anti- Masonry,  213. 

Bailey,  Miss  Elizabeth,  mar- 
riage of,  to  James  Kent,  29. 

Bailey,  Col.  John,  29. 

Bailey,  Theodorus,  letters  to, 
regarding  N.  Y.  senatorial  con- 
test of  1791,  39;  letter  to,  con- 
cerning bill  to  incorporate  U.  S. 
Bank,  41  ;  elected  member  of 
Congress  over  James  Kent,  49 ; 
letter  to,  167. 

Baldwin,  Rev.  Ebenezer,  7; 
death  of,  10. 

Baldwin,  Judge  Henry,  198. 

Baldwin,  Simeon,  recollections 
of  college  life  of  James  Kent,  9. 

Batik  of  the  United  States,  char- 
tered, 40. 

Bayard,  Mr.,  192. 

Benson,  Egbert,  takes  Kent  as 
a  student,  15,  19;  Kent's  esti- 
mate of,  20;  Judge  William 
Kent's  characterization  of,  20. 

BiGELOW,  Dr.,  253. 

Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  175, 176, 
177,  251,  252. 

Botsford,  Judge,  259. 


Bridgport,  Lord,  175. 

British  Troops  occupy  NevvHaven, 
12. 

Brown,  General,  123,  124. 

Burr,  Aaron,  characterized  by 
Kent,  31 ;  duel  with  Hamilton, 
note  concerning  Kent's  connec- 
tion with,  Ty-i>\  Kent's  sketch  of 
34;  amusing  anecdote  of,  36; 
appointed  judge  of  Supreme 
Court  in  New  York,  47  ;  candi- 
date for  President,  139. 

Calhoun,  John  C,  20S,  209. 

Cambridge  La7v  School,  259,  271. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  252. 

Caulaincourt,  251. 

Clay,  Henry,  209,  213,  214,  216. 

Clinton,  Gov.  George,  31  ; 
elected  governor  of  N.  Y.,  43, 
49. 

Colutnbia  College,  Kent  elected 
professor  of  law  in,  55,  1S6,  193. 

Commentaries,  Blackstone's,  202. 

Commentaries,  Jienfs,  begun,  193; 
cost  of  first  volume,  193;  pref- 
ace to  first  volume,  193-194; 
sale  of,  195 ;  second  and  third 
volumes  appear,  195;  fourth 
volume  appears,  195  ;  Chief- 
Justice  Savage's  opinion  of, 
196;  Chief-Justice  Prentice's 
opinion  of,  196-197 ;  second, 
third,  and  fourth  editions  ap- 
pear, 200;  their  civilizing  influ- 
ence, 201 ;  preparation  of,  205. 


336 


INDEX 


Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
New  York  convention  to  ratify, 

30- 

Copenhagen,  great  fire  in,  174. 
Council  of  Revision,  179. 
Croton  Water,  264. 

Daggett,  Chief- Justice,  216;  let- 
ter from,  217. 

Dndling,  Chancellor  Kent's  opin- 
ion on  the  Act  to  Suppress,  160- 
164. 

DuER,  Hon.  John,  extract  from 
discourse  of,  29;  his  impres- 
sions of  Kent's  law  lectures,  63  ; 
on  condition  of  Supreme  Court, 
112. 

DURAND,  A.  B.,  259. 

Dutch  Refonned  Church,  22. 
DwiGHT,  Theodore,  letter  from, 
219. 

Edinburgh  Review,  244. 

Ellmaker,  Amos,  213,  214. 

England,  Kent's  opinion  of  war 
with,  166. 

Erie  Canal,  168. 

Everett,  Edward,  215,  229;  let- 
ters from,  204,  216. 

Fayette,  Marqtiis  de  La,  249. 
Fielding,  Henry,  240. 
Foote,  S.  a.,  215. 
France,  news  from,  174-177. 
Freeman,  the  institution  explained, 

84. 
Fre7ich  Revolution,  238. 
Frothingham,  Dr.,  253. 

Gaston,  Mr.,  166. 

Gebhard,  Dominie,  137. 

Gifford,  William,  243,244,  245. 

Godwijiiafi  philosophy,  239. 

Goethe,  245. 

Granger  and  Stevens,  212. 

Grant,  Robert,  259. 


Habeas  Corpus,  anecdote  of  en- 
forcement of  by  Judge  Kent, 
123-124. 

Hall,  Prescott,  260. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  appear- 
ance in  N.  Y.  Constitutional 
Convention,  31 ;  Kent's  admira- 
tion for,  23  ;  his  personal  regard 
for  Kent,  t,t,;  duel  with  Burr, 
note  concerning  Kent's  connec- 
tion with,  2,2,;  Kent  visits  him 
at  his  home,  143;  concerning  his 
opinion  on  a  Constitutional  ques- 
tion, 206,  227, 22S ;  Kent's  mono- 
graph concerning,  278  et  seq. 

Herkimer,  General,  149. 

Holmes,  Abiel,  243. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  243. 

Hone,  Mrs.  Isaac  S.,  186,  263. 

Hone,  Philip,  192. 

Hughes,  General,  148. 

Irving,  Washington,  230;  din- 
ner to,  230-235,  259. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  207,  213,  217, 

Jacobinism,  165. 

Jay,  John,  46,  48 ;  signs  Kent's 
commission  as  Recorder,  83-97  ; 
signs  Kent's  commission  as 
Judge  of  Supreme  Court,  no, 
150. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  Kent's  an- 
tagonism to,  85  ;  elected  Presi- 
dent over  Burr,  139-142;  219, 
221-224,  247,  249. 

Johnson,  William,  125-128, 182; 
letter  to,  185. 

Johnson^s  Chancery  Reports,  183, 
1 86. 

Juvenal,  243,  244. 

Kane,  Dr.  Elisha  Kent,  2. 
Kemble,  Fanny,  261. 
Kent  Club,  259. 


INDEX 


337 


Kent,  Rev.  Dr.  Elisha,  gradua- 
tion, I  ;  life  in  the  valley  of  the 
Croton,  2. 

Kent,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  B.,  letters 
to,  129,  130,  132,  133,  135,  136, 
142,  147. 

Kent,  James,  LL.D.,  descent,  i ; 
recollections  of  the  Revolution, 
4  ;  appointed  a  militia  paymas- 
ter, 5 ;  his  recollections  of  his 
father  and  grandfather,  6 :  birth 
and  early  education,  7  ;  enters 
Yale  College,  8;  graduated  at 
Yale  College,  9  ;  Simeon  Bald- 
win's recollections  of  him,  9; 
takes  his  degree  of  A.  M.,  12 ; 
enters  law  office  of  Egbert  Ben- 
son, 15,  19;  letters  to  Simeon 
Baldwin,  15-18;  his  own  esti- 
mate of  his  early  attainments, 
iS  ;  reads  Blackstone,  18 ;  reads 
Grotius,  Puffendorf,  Smollett, 
and  Rapin,  19;  his  abstemious 
habits,  19  ;  admitted  to  the  Bar, 
22 ;  his  marriage,  23,  29 ;  part- 
nership with  Gilbert  Livingston, 
23 ;  early  domestic  arrange- 
ments, 23  ;  revives  his  classical 
studies,  24;  begins  the  study 
of  French,  27  ;  systematic  di- 
vision of  his  time,  27  ;  his  re- 
moval to  New  York,  28  ;  anec- 
dote of  an  amusing  encounter 
with  Burr,  36 ;  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  New  York  Assembly, 
37 ;  social  life  at  New  York, 
38  ;  N.  Y.  senatorial  contest  of 
1791,  38;  letters  to  Theodorus 
Bailey  concerning  it,  39;  ad- 
vocates a  State  banking  bill,  41  ; 
re-elected  to  N.  Y.  Assembly, 
42  ;  his  part  in  N.  Y.  guberna- 
torial election  contest  of  1792, 
43 ;  letter  to  Moss  Kent 
concerning  it,   44;    nominated 


for  member  of  Congress  and 
defeated  by  Theodorus  Bailey, 
49  ;  removes  to  New  York,  50 ; 
death  of  his  infant  daughter, 
52 ;  admitted  to  practice  in 
Mayor's  Court,  52  ;  fortunes  at 
a  low  ebb,  53 ;  amusing  anec- 
dote of  this  period,  53  ;  cost  of 
living  in  New  York  in  1793,  54 ; 
elected  professor  of  law  in 
Columbia  College,  55;  his  ret- 
rospect of  his  professional  life, 
55 ;  makes  a  journey  to  Wash- 
ington, 60 ;  visit  at  Philadelphia, 
60;  present  at  Washington's 
levee,  61 ;  personal  impressions 
of  President  Washington,  61  ; 
begins  his  first  course  of  law  lec- 
tures, 62  ;  purchases  a  house  in 
New  York,  74 ;  completes  his 
first  course  of  lectures,  74  ;  be- 
gins his  second  course,  75 ; 
resigns  his  professorship,  77 ; 
is  given  the  degree  of  doctor  of 
laws,  79 ;  passes  a  summer  in 
reading  at  Poughkeepsie,  79 ; 
appointed  Master  in  Chancery, 
80 ;  birth  of  his  second  child, 
81  ;  appointed  Recorder  in  New 
York,  82 ;  admitted  a  freeman, 
83 ;  elected  to  the  Assembly 
from  New  York,  84  ;  criticises 
John  Adams,  88-97 ;  letter  to 
Moss  Kent  concerning  appoint- 
ment as  Recorder,  97 ;  pur- 
chases a  slave  girl,  99 ;  anec- 
dotes illustrating  his  power  of 
memory,  100,  loi ;  reads  Ovid, 
Horace,  and  Lucian,  102 ;  his 
criticism  of  Demosthenes,  104; 
sojourn  at  Poughkeepsie  in 
autumn  of  1795,  104-106;  ap- 
pointed Judge  of  Supreme 
Court,  108 ;  returns  to  Pough- 
keepsie,   109;    introduces   new 


22 


338 


INDEX 


methods  in  Supreme  Court,  1 13, 
114;  his  social  Hfe  at  Albany, 
119;  appointed  Chief-Justice, 
120 ;  visits  the  State  Prison,  122  ; 
diaries  of  travels,  129;  letters 
to  his  wife,  129-137  ;  ends  his 
political  career,  139;  letter  to 
his  wife  concerning  political 
matters,  142 ;  visits  Hamilton 
at  his  home,  143 ;  records  of 
his  studies,  144-146 ;  reads 
Sparks'  Washington,  146 ;  letter 
to  his  wife,  147 ;  journeys  into 
Canada,  148;  journey  to  Fort 
Stanvvix,  149;  journey  to  New 
Utrecht,  1 51  ;  journey  to  Lake 
Champlain,  151  ;  journey  to 
Nevvburgh,  152;  his  description 
of  the  scene  on  arrival,  152-154 
visit  to  Niagara  Falls,  154-156 
his  first  trip  by  steamboat,  156 
appointed  Chancellor,  157  ;  his 
experiences  as  Chancellor,  157- 
159;  his  opinion  on  the  law  to 
suppress  duelling,  160-165  ;  his 
reply  to  a  temperance  com- 
mittee, 165  ;  his  opinion  of  the 
War  of  18 1 2,  166,  167  ;  his  action 
on  the  Erie  Canal  bill,  16S-170; 
his  interest  in  foreign  news, 
171-177  ;  delegate  to  State  con- 
stitutional convention,  177  ;  let- 
ter from  Jonas  Piatt,  182 ;  an- 
ecdotes of,  as  Chancellor,  183- 
185 ;  retires  from  chancellor- 
ship, 186,  189;  again  elected 
law  professor  in  Columbia  Col- 
lege, 186,  190  ;  begins  to  write 
his  Commentaries,  187 ;  ap- 
pointed receiver  of  Franklin 
Bank,  187;  receives  compli- 
mentary addresses  from  Bar, 
1 89 ;  removes  to  New  York,  190 ; 
in  demand  as  a  diner-out,  191  ; 
anecdote  concerning  law  Latin, 


199-200;  his  correspondence 
with  men  of  note,  204;  friend- 
ship with  Daniel  Webster,  205 ; 
letter  to  same,  205;  letters  to 
same,  209,  210  ;  appointed  Presi- 
dential elector,  211;  notes  on 
Jefferson,  221-223;  addresses 
N.  Y.  Historical  Society,  227  ; 
delivers  a  Phi  Beta  Kappa  ad- 
dress, 229 ;  extols  study  of 
classics,  230 ;  address  at  dinner 
to  Irving,  231-235  ;  address  be- 
fore Law  Association,  235-236; 
interest  in  literary  work,  237 ; 
letter  to  Moss  Kent,  237-238; 
criticism  of  Abbe  de  Malby, 
238-239 ;  criticism  of  Mary 
Wollstonecraft,  239  ;  criticism 
of  Stuart's  "  View  of  Society," 
239;  criticism  of  Fielding  and 
Smollett,  240;  criticism  of  Mrs. 
Radcliffe,  240 ;  criticism  of 
Shakespeare,  241-242 ;  criticism 
of  Abiel  Holmes,  243  ;  criticism 
of  Juvenal,  244 ;  criticism  of 
Klopstock,  245-246  ;  criticism  of 
"  Journal  of  Science,"  246  ;  criti- 
cism of  William  Pinkney,  247 ; 
criticism  of  Sparks'  Washing- 
ton, 248-249;  criticism  and  notes 
on  John  Quincy  Adams,  250- 
251  ;  criticism  on  Napoleon  L, 
251  ;  criticism  on  Thomas  Car- 
lyle,  252 ;  on  William  H.  Pres- 
cott,  252 ;  suggests  courses  of 
reading  for  Mercantile  Library 
Association,  254-256;  his  love  of 
family  and  home,  257  ;  acquires 
his  Sabine  Farm,  259;  entertains 
Charles  Sumner,  259;  enter- 
tains the  Kent  Club,  259;  visits 
Daniel  Webster  at  the  Astor 
House,  259-260 ;  entertains 
Charles  Sumner  at  dinner,  261 ; 
entertains  Fanny  Kemble,  261 ; 


INDEX 


339 


entertains  Daniel  Webster  at 
dinner,  261-262 ;  sees  his  son 
on  the  Bench,  262 ;  notes  the 
57th  anniversary  of  his  mar- 
riage, 263;  writes  Daniel  Web- 
ster of  his  employment  in 
declining  years,  263-264 ;  hon- 
ored by  members  of  the  Bench 
in  Massachusetts,  266 ;  visits 
Mount  Auburn,  266;  tendered 
a  dinner  by  the  Philadelphia 
Bar,  26S ;  addressed  by  New 
York  Bar  on  attaining  his  eigh- 
tieth year,  269-271 ;  visits  his 
son  at  Cambridge,  271;  last 
years  of  life,  272-275;  his  re- 
ligious convictions,  275-277  ; 
death,  277. 
Kent,  Moss,  Jr.,  letter  to,  con- 
cerning New  York  election  con- 
test of  1792,  46;  another  on 
same  topic,  48 ;  letter  to,  con- 
cerning election  of  Theodorus 
Bailey  to  Congress,  49;  letter 
to,  concerning  cost  of  living  in 
New  York,  1793,  54;  letter  to, 
concerning  appointment  as  Re- 
corder, 97  ;  letter  to,  concern- 
ing financial  matters,  99 ;  letter 
to,  concerning  classical  studies, 
102  ;  letter  to,  concerning  stud- 
ies, 106,  107 ;  letter  from,  fore- 
casting appointment  as  Supreme 
Court  Judge,  no;  letter  to,  con- 
cerning appointment,  no;  let- 
ters to,  concerning  War  of  1812, 
166,  167  ;  letters  to,  on  occur- 
rences abroad,  171,  172,  173, 
174,  175,  176,  177  ;  letters  to, 
regarding  social  obligations, 
191  ;  letter  to,  concerning  law 
lectures,  192  ;  letters  to,  con- 
cerning Commentaries, 198-199; 
letter  to,  218;  letter  to,  237; 
letter  to,  240. 


Kent,  Moss,  Sr.,  letter  to,  con- 
cerning New  York  election  con- 
test of  1792,  47;  death  of,  62. 

Kent,  Judge  William,  his 
characterization  of  Egbert  Ben- 
son, 20;  delivers  his  introduc- 
tory law  lecture  at  University 
of  New  York,  79 ;  letter  to,  con- 
cerning Commentaries,  201 ;  let- 
ter from,  253;  ascends  the  Bench 
262;  letter  to,  266;  elected  pro- 
fessor in  Harvard  Law  School, 
271  ;  records  his  father's  re- 
ligious convictions,  276-277. 

Klopstock,  Frederick  and 
Margaret,  245,  246. 

Lmo  Association  of  City  of  New 
York,  extract  from  address  be- 
fore, 30,  235. 

Leipsig,  battle  at,  176. 

Lewis,  Governor,  192. 

Lewis,  Morgan,  120;  anecdote 
of,  121. 

Lieber,  Francis,  277. 

Livingston,  Gilbert,  23. 

Luxernbotirg,  taken,  173. 

MacVickar,  Dr.,  259. 
Madison,  James,  war  conduct  of, 

165,  166,  206,  247. 
Malby,  Abb6  de,  238. 
Marriott,  Sir  James,  247. 
Marryat,  Captain,  259. 
Mellen,  Chief-Justice,  198. 
Mercantile     Library     Association, 

254- 

Miller,  David,  213-215. 

Milton,  John,  246. 

Morgan,  Wtiliam,  215. 

Morris,  Hon.  Robert,  memora- 
bilia concerning  Kent's  appoint- 
ment as  Recorder,  98. 

Murder,  convictions  of,  123. 


340 


INDEX 


Nelson,  Lord,  175. 

New  York  Historical  Society,  227, 
277. 

New  York,  Kent  moves  to,  50; 
cost  of  living  in,  1793,  54;  prog- 
ress of  jurisprudence  in,  1793, 
58 ;  epidemic  of  yellow  fever  in, 
104;  State  Constitutional  con- 
vention, 177. 

North,  General,  147. 

O'CoNOR,  Charles,  259. 
Ogden,  David  B.,  214,  215. 


-,  180. 


Paulding,  - 

Phi  Beta  Kappa,  concerning  ora- 
tion before,  14,  229. 

Philadelphia  Bar  Association,  let- 
ter to,  268-269. 

PiNKNEY,  William,  247,  248. 

Platt,  Jonas,  Hon.,  letters  to 
Kent  on  Presidential  contest  of 
1801,  140-141 ;  149,  165,  169, 
178,  181-182,  186,  198. 

Porter,  Judge,  198. 

Prentice,  Chief-Justice,  196-197. 

PRESCOTT,  William  H.,  252-254. 

Quakers,  Kent's  opinion  of,  123. 

Radcliffe,  Mrs.  Ann,  240,  256. 
Reed,  William  B.,  extract  from 

letter  to,  19. 
Rogers,    Hannah,    mother    of 

James  Kent,  6. 
Rogers,  Uriah,  Dr.,  6. 

Sabine  Farm,  76,  259. 
Saussure,  Chancellor  de,  letters 

from,  223-225. 
Savage,  Chief-Justice,   letter    to 

Kent,  196. 
Schiller,  245. 
Schuyler,  General,  his  defeat  by 

Burr,  38 ;  227. 


Scott,  Sir  William,  247. 
Secession,  predicted,  224,  225,  226. 
Sedgwick,  Judge,  147. 
Shakespeare,     William,    241, 

242,  251. 
Silliman,  Augustus  E.,  254. 
Silliman,  Benjamin  D.,  dinner 

to,    190;    his     recollections    of 

Kent,  190. 
Silliman,  Professor,  198,  246. 
Smith,  Gerrit,    149. 
Smith,  Gov.  J.  C,  198. 
Smollett,  Tobias  G.,  240. 
Sparks,  Jared,  248,  253. 
Spencer,  John  C,  214. 
Spencer,  Judge,   165,   178,  180, 

212,  213,  215,  218. 
Stael,  Mme.  de,  246. 
Stark,  General,  260. 
Stevens,  Alderman,  215. 
Stiles,  President,  11,  12,  243. 
Story,    Judge,    203,    229;    265- 

268. 
Stowell,  Baron,  247. 
Strong,  Professor,  12. 
St.  Vincent,  Earl,  175. 
Suffrage  in  New  York,  179,  180. 
Sumner,  Charles,  203,  236,  259, 

261. 
Supreme  Court,  its   condition   on 

Kent's  accession  to  the  Bench, 

112. 

Tallmadge,  Mr.,  179. 
Taylor,  President,  169. 
Temperaftce      Committee,     Kent's 

answer  to,  165. 
Thompson,     Chief-Justice,     165, 

169. 
Tompkins,  Daniel  D.,  157,  169, 

I  So. 
Troup,    Robert,    extract   from 

letter  to,  30. 
Tucker,   George,  notes   in   his 

"Life  of  Jefferson,"  221-223. 


INDEX 


341 


Van    Buren,  ,   180,  214, 

215. 

Van  Ness,  Judge,  136, 137  ;  anec- 
dotes of,  137,  138,  165;  letter 
from,  168,  178. 

Van  Rensselaer,  Stephen,  178. 

Van  Schaack,  Peter,  150. 

Van  Vechten,  Abraham,  178. 

Varick,  Colonel,  192. 

Washington,  George,  his  per- 
sonal appearance  described,  61 ; 
his  last  message  to  Congress, 
86 ;  Kent  criticises  it,  87,  249. 

Washington,  Thomas,  letter  to, 
116-118,  157-159,  1S6. 

Waverley  Novels,  254,  256. 


Webster,  Daniel,  Kent's  friend 
ship  with,  205 ;  letter  to,  205; 
letters  from,  207-210,  235;  216- 
218,  260,  262. 

Wheaton, ,  180. 

White,  Ebenezer,  8. 

Wills,  William,  198. 

Wirt,  William,  209,  213,  214. 

Wollstonecraft,  Mary,  239. 

Wood,  Silvia,  convicted  of  mur- 
der, 123. 

Yah'  College,  library  of,  13;  cur- 
riculum of,  13. 
Yates,  Judge,  165,  169. 
Young,  Sam,  212. 


JUN    5  1952 

JUN?  0  Rtr.f' 

DEC      £recd 

0110  311952 

JAN  2  6  t9SI 


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This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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WSK.     f^ 


AP^  2 


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MOV  1  4^9^"^ 

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